Gilbert, AZ Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Section 6-7, titled simply 'Feeding,' sits in Chapter 6, Article I of the Code of Gilbert and was added by Ordinance No. 2664 on May 17, 2018, a relatively recent addition compared with the town's older animal-control sections. The prohibition is narrowly scoped to town-owned property and public rights-of-way: it does not reach feeding activity on a resident's own private lot, and it targets 'wild or feral animal' feeding specifically rather than domestic pets. The only carve-out in the section is discretionary and administrative, the parks and recreation director may authorize specific individuals to feed wild or feral animals when the purpose is animal rescue, rehabilitation or management, meaning a volunteer trap-neuter-return colony caretaker or wildlife rehabber would need that director's authorization before feeding on town property rather than relying on a blanket exemption.

Because the section sits outside the dogs-and-cats article (Article II) and the livestock article (Article III), it functions as a general-purpose park and public-space feeding ban aimed at discouraging coyotes, geese, feral cats and similar wildlife from congregating in town parks, canal banks and rights-of-way where feeding creates nuisance, sanitation or safety concerns. Enforcement runs through the same enforcement-agent and code compliance structure used elsewhere in Chapter 6, and a violation is prosecuted as a town code violation rather than a state wildlife offense.