Leon County, FL Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Under Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-46, the county's animal control division "discourages citizens from feeding feral animals" living outdoors in the unincorporated area, and anyone found in violation is fined. A feral animal is defined in Sec. 4-26 as any wild cat or dog, whether born in the wild or reverted to a wild state through abandonment or lack of domestication, which reaches beyond stray dogs and cats to any wild feline or canine living outside human care. The ordinance carves out two narrow exceptions: a person may feed or harbor a feral animal only if it has been spayed or neutered to control overpopulation, and even then only while it is on private property and the owner of that property has given express written approval.

Feeding an unaltered feral animal, or feeding on public land, right-of-way, or a neighbor's property without permission, falls outside both exceptions. Animal control may impound a feral animal under this section if it creates a public health or safety concern such as rabies or other zoonotic or animal-to-animal disease risk, or if it rises to a public nuisance as defined in Sec. 4-26 and regulated under Sec. 4-36. Sec. 4-36 lets the county investigate nuisance complaints through officer observation, sworn affidavits from two unrelated nearby residents, or a resident affidavit paired with video evidence, and gives an owner seven calendar days' written notice to abate before a citation issues.

Enforcement runs through Sec. 4-29's countywide civil citation system administered by the Board of County Commissioners' animal control division, with civil penalties enforceable in county court.