Iowa City, IA Animal Ordinances: Coyote Management (2026)

Section 8-4-10(H) of the Iowa City Code makes it unlawful to place, permit to be placed, or maintain any grain, fodder, salt licks, fruit, vegetables, nuts, hay, or other edible material, including bird feed, on the ground or within five feet of the ground surface, if doing so may reasonably be expected to result in deer feeding. The ban has four exceptions: materials screened or protected so deer cannot reach them, living fruit trees and other live vegetation, incidental spills of seed intended for planting or for birds, and feeding done with the City's written consent for the purpose of killing deer under the City's deer management plan.

That last exception dovetails with the separate weapons chapter: section 8-7-1 bans discharging any firearm within city limits but carves out an exception for individuals who have the City's written consent to kill deer under an approved deer management plan, and section 8-7-4 does the same for bows and crossbows used to cull deer under that plan. Iowa City's police department administers the deer management program referenced in these sections, which coordinates the controlled culls the ordinances were amended in September 2020 to authorize. The feeding ban targets deer being drawn into residential yards, where they concentrate, spread disease, and become more likely to be hit by vehicles, while the firearm and bow exceptions let the City run controlled, permitted culls rather than leaving population control to individual residents.