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

" Feeding deer, geese, ducks or any other wild animal sits inside that same sentence as hunting and trapping, so the Commission treats an act as harmless as tossing bread to geese with the same regulatory weight as harming wildlife outright. The clause carves out one narrow exception: it "shall not apply to the Commission and its personnel for any permits obtained from State or Federal Agencies regarding the treatment of animals or wildlife or their eggs," so state and federal wildlife-management permits held by Commission staff are unaffected.

A related clause at Section 4(b)(2), Prohibition of Animal Disposal, separately bars dropping off or abandoning any domesticated or wild animal in a park, closing off the loophole of someone releasing an unwanted pet near park wildlife. Fishing gets its own carve-out at Section 4(b)(3): anglers may take fish only from Commission-designated fishing waters and only under New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife rules, which is the sole activity in this section that involves taking an animal from the park under any circumstance.