Horry County, SC Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Article III of Chapter 4, Migratory Wild Fowl, opens with a legislative finding at Sec. 4-31: the county determined that attracting large numbers of waterfowl to residential properties causes a public nuisance by contaminating lakes and ponds and causing erosion. Sec. 4-32 defines the regulated birds narrowly: domestic waterfowl means non-native ducks, geese and swans not kept in agricultural operations, and migratory waterfowl means ducks, geese and swans native to North America, while feeding covers the act of furnishing food or other substance essential for growth or maintenance of waterfowl. Built on those definitions, Sec. 4-33 does two things: subsection (a) bans feeding or causing to be fed any domestic or migratory waterfowl in the county's residential areas, and subsection (b) separately bans creating or allowing a condition that results in waterfowl congregating or congesting in those same residential areas, so a resident can violate the article by attracting birds even without directly feeding them by hand.

The only exception, added by Ord. No. 17-19 in 2019, is Sec. 4-34: a wildlife-management facility sited on at least five acres is exempt from the entire article, carving out legitimate refuges and rehabilitation operations from the residential feeding ban. The Horry County Police Department is designated the enforcement agency under Sec. 4-35, and Sec. 4-36 sets the penalty by cross-reference: conviction of any Article III violation is subject to punishment as provided in Sec. 1-8 of the Code, the county's general penalty section, which for a misdemeanor-declared offense caps out at a $500 fine, thirty days imprisonment, or thirty days of public service in lieu of either, with each day of a continuing violation chargeable separately.