Essex County has no countywide wildlife-feeding ban. Individual municipalities regulate feeding of wild animals, deer, and waterfowl, often as a nuisance. State law separately restricts feeding certain wildlife such as black bears.
Feeding wildlife is regulated municipally in New Jersey; Essex County itself sets no general feeding ordinance. Many towns have adopted ordinances that prohibit or restrict feeding wild animals, deer, or waterfowl where it creates a nuisance, attracts vermin, or endangers public health, and Newark's Animal Control Bureau responds to wildlife complaints and picks up stray and wild animals. Feeding that produces accumulations, odor, rodents, or sanitation hazards is reachable under a municipality's nuisance and health provisions. New Jersey also restricts feeding certain wildlife at the state level, most notably a statewide prohibition on feeding black bears enforced by NJDEP. Report wildlife problems to local animal control or NJDEP Fish and Wildlife.
Enforced by the municipality or, for state-regulated species, by NJDEP. Local wildlife-feeding or nuisance ordinances carry town-set fines and abatement orders. The state black-bear feeding ban carries its own NJDEP penalties. Feeding rules vary by town.
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Essex County, NJ
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Essex County, NJ
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Essex County, NJ
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Essex County, NJ
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Essex County, NJ
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Essex County, NJ
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See how Essex County's wildlife feeding rules stack up against other locations.
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