Allentown, PA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Allentown Code § 425-6, adopted by Ordinance No. 13824 on April 24, 2000, states plainly: "No person shall feed any water fowl in the City's parks and the municipal golf course." The rule sits inside Chapter 425, Parks and Recreation Areas, adopted to govern conduct in every park and recreation area under municipal jurisdiction. A companion provision, § 425-7, bars anyone from releasing domestic waterfowl or any other bird, animal or fish into the parks or the golf course, closing off the obvious workaround of dumping unwanted birds instead of feeding wild ones. Both sections trace back to concerns over geese and duck populations fouling ponds and turf at facilities such as the municipal golf course.

Enforcement runs through § 425-23: the Mayor designates supervisory City employees, including Police Department and Parks and Recreation Bureau staff, with authority to issue citations and start summary proceedings for chapter violations, and those officers can order anyone violating the chapter to leave the park. Because § 425-6 carries no permit exception and no numeric threshold, feeding a single duck or an entire flock is treated the same: any feeding of waterfowl in a park or at the golf course is unlawful outright, distinguishing it from ordinances elsewhere that only restrict large-scale or commercial feeding.