Tucson, AZ Animal Ordinances: Coyote Management (2026)

UDC Sec. E governs the keeping of food producing animals as an accessory use to a residential property, an accessory community garden, or an accessory urban farm. Animal units set the cap: a chicken counts as one unit, a duck as two, a turkey or goose as four, and a female or neutered miniature goat as five, with the total capped at the lesser of two units per 1,000 square feet of lot size or a sliding scale that tops out at 48 units on lots of 144,000 square feet or more.

Uncastrated male miniature goats older than five months and male fowl are prohibited outright. Shelters can't sit in the buildable area between the house and the front lot line, must generally stay at least 20 feet from a dwelling on an abutting property, and are capped at 12 feet in height. Within that same list of standards, Sec. 6 adds the predator-attractant rule: food, water, and other items that may attract coyotes, bobcats, javelinas and other predators must be kept in a secure location. The requirement is narrow, it targets attractants tied to backyard livestock-keeping rather than general urban wildlife feeding, and it sits alongside a separate Tucson Code Chapter 4 (Animals and Fowl) framework for animal care and cruelty that the same subsection cross-references.