Amherst, NY Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Chapter 199 of the Amherst Code, adopted November 20, 2006 by Local Law No. 12-2006, responds to Town Board findings that feeding wild waterfowl in Amherst had caused rat and predator infestations, damage to public parks, water-quality problems, traffic hazards, and contaminated private yards and swimming pools. Section 199-2 flatly bars anyone from feeding or providing food to wild waterfowl at any time during the year anywhere in the Town. Section 199-3 defines "feed" broadly to include placing, depositing, scattering or distributing corn, wheat or other grains, bread, popcorn, scraps "or any substance liable to be eaten" by waterfowl in a spot the birds can reach, and defines "wild waterfowl" as nondomesticated birds, migratory or not, expressly including Canada geese and mallard ducks.

The law's stated purpose runs both ways: it protects residents from the mess and disease that accumulate around fed flocks, and it protects the waterfowl themselves, since feeding in an urban setting like Amherst disrupts migration, causes nutritional problems, increases predation, and spreads diseases such as avian cholera, plague and botulism. The Amherst Police Department, not the state DEC, is designated under § 199-5 as the enforcing agency. There is no seasonal exception and no permit process; the prohibition runs year-round for every property in town, public or private.