Passaic County, NJ Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

" The same paragraph immediately carves out two related activities: "Fishing is allowed in designated areas under the guidelines of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. " Read together, the county draws a sharp line, fishing is permitted only where designated and only under state Fish and Wildlife guidelines, hunting is banned outright everywhere in the park system, and feeding, harming or otherwise interfering with wildlife is banned everywhere with no permit exception written into the text, unlike many of the ordinance's other prohibitions.

This paragraph continues the same Section 18 numbering that also restricts roller skating and bicycling to designated paths, bars unleashed animals (leashes capped at six feet, dogs excluded from sports fields) and restricts unauthorized motor vehicles, snowmobiles and ATVs to County-designated roadways, all sitting under one section number in the ordinance's printed text. Because Article I, Section 1(b) extends the ordinance to "all the Park Property, golf course, facilities, parks, parkways, and playgrounds which are owned, leased, maintained or otherwise under the control of the County of Passaic," the wildlife-feeding ban reaches every county park, not one location.

A person feeding geese, deer or other wildlife on county park land, or hunting anywhere in the system, is in violation, enforced through Article I, Section 1(c)'s Municipal Court process and the ordinance's closing penalty clause.