Delaware County, PA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)
Key Facts
- Rule
- No feeding wildlife/waterfowl in parks
- Exception
- PA Game Commission-approved food only
- Section
- County Code § 141-7.A(3)
- Enforcement
- Delaware County Park Police
- Scope
- County park property only
Summary
County Code § 141-7.A(3) bars feeding any animal or waterfowl in a Delaware County park unless the food is expressly approved by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, closing off the deer, goose and stray-cat feeding that draws crowds and pests to picnic areas.
No person shall feed any animal or waterfowl any food or other substance except such food expressly permitted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
B. Natural resources. The following activities are prohibited without written permission from the Delaware County Parks and Recreation Department, pursuant to Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources guidelines:
(1) Cutting, picking, digging, damaging, or removing (in whole or in part) a living or dead plant, vine, shrub, tree, or flower, including fungus, lichen, and moss.
(2) Removing rocks, shale, sand, clay, soil, or other mineral products.
(3) Removing peat, bark, mulch, pine straw, or other natural resources.
(4) Planting a tree, shrub, or plant.
(5) Releasing an animal that was brought into a County park.
C. Streams. The following activities are prohibited without permits from the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) or possibly other agencies, pursuant to PADEP guidelines: redirecting the flow of a stream by reshaping gravel bars, or moving gravel to the streambank.
Full Breakdown
A(3) that no person shall feed any animal or waterfowl any food or other substance except food expressly permitted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The prohibition sits inside § 141-7's broader wildlife and hunting provisions, which also bar killing, wounding, harassing, trapping, hunting, or removing any animal, reptile, bird, nest, egg or young found in a County park, and require a current Commonwealth fishing license to fish park waters. Because the feeding ban is tied to Game Commission approval rather than a blanket zero-tolerance rule, the practical effect is that bread, chips, corn and other typical handouts to geese, ducks or deer are prohibited outright, since none of that is Game Commission-approved wildlife feed.
B, reflecting a broader natural-resources protection scheme for the roughly 3,000 acres of County parkland. Enforcement runs through the Delaware County Park Police, who patrol Parks and Recreation Department property and can eject or cite visitors who violate park regulations. The ban applies only on County park property; feeding wildlife on private land or within a municipal park falls under whatever ordinance, if any, that borough or township has adopted separately.
Violations & Fines
Violations of the Chapter 141 park rules, including the wildlife-feeding ban, are enforced by Delaware County Park Police as summary park-regulation offenses; officers can order violators to stop, remove them from the park, and issue citations, with the animal-seizure and stray-disposal provisions of § 141-3.N applying to animals left at large as a result of unauthorized feeding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I feed geese or ducks at a Delaware County park?
Does the feeding ban cover deer as well as birds?
Who enforces the wildlife-feeding rule in Delaware County parks?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Delaware County
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