Lee County, NC Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

San-Lee Park, the county's dedicated educational and recreational park in unincorporated Lee County, carries its own wildlife article separate from the general parks rules. Sec. 18-63(7) states plainly that it is not permitted to trap, molest, catch, harm or chase any wildlife, wild fowl or fish, or to molest their natural habitat, and separately that it is not permitted to feed wildlife within the park. The code spells out the reasoning: feeding is dangerous and can alter the natural food-gathering habits of the animal and possibly drive it from the park.

San-Lee Park is designated a wildlife sanctuary under this article, echoing the countywide parks rule at Sec. 18-34(c). The camping rules in the general parks article reinforce the same policy: campers in county parks are told not to leave foodstuffs within easy access to wildlife and to lock supplies up or hang them out of reach. Enforcement at San-Lee Park runs through the parks and recreation department, with the on-duty park ranger empowered to expel violators immediately. Sec. 18-61 lets the county enforce this division by any remedy authorized under G.S.

153A-123, in addition to the flat civil penalty in Sec. 18-62. The feeding ban covers deer, waterfowl, fish and any other wild animal on San-Lee Park grounds; it does not reach private property or the rest of unincorporated Lee County, where no separate countywide wildlife-feeding ordinance exists in the code.