Madison, WI Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

42, "Feeding Birds on Public Property Prohibited," splits the ban into two subsections. Subsection (1) makes it unlawful for any person to feed anything to any bird on public property within the City of Madison, unless specifically authorized by the City of Madison Parks Department. Subsection (2) applies the same prohibition to Henry Vilas Zoo property specifically, with authorization resting instead with the Henry Vilas Zoo Director. The ordinance was created by ORD-11-00168 on December 6, 2011, and its penalty clause was renumbered from subsection (2) to (3) in that same ordinance.

The rule targets the classic nuisance-bird problem, geese, pigeons and gulls congregating around public feeding, by cutting off supplemental feeding on city-owned land rather than regulating the animals directly. 42. Enforcement sits with the Parks Division and Park Rangers for park-specific violations under the citation-authority table in Sec. 08(4), MGO, and with Humane Officers more broadly for the Chapter 8 animal-related provisions. Because the section covers "any bird," it is not limited to waterfowl or pigeons, feeding songbirds, raptors or any other bird species on city property without Parks Department authorization is likewise a violation.

The zoo carve-out in subsection (2) exists because the Henry Vilas Zoo, a City-owned free zoo, has its own animal-feeding protocols that the Zoo Director controls separately from general park feeding authorizations.