Middletown, OH Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

06(a)(1), part of Chapter 1810's Wild and Feral Animals provisions, bars any person from harboring, feeding or selling live wild animals that are native to the State, naming foxes, skunks, raccoons, opossums and weasels as examples, though the list is not exclusive. 06(a)(2), bans importing any such wild animal into the city, so a resident cannot bring in an out-of-state wild animal and then feed it locally either. 01(e), as a susceptible domestic animal living in a wild state, meaning the feeding ban reaches abandoned or free-roaming domestic animals that have reverted to wild behavior as well as truly wild species.

The same section bars anyone from performing surgery or other techniques on a wild animal to domesticate it, and from immunizing a wild animal against rabies, closing off two common workarounds people use to justify ongoing feeding relationships with backyard wildlife. 06(c) requires the animal be impounded for sacrifice as soon as possible for rabies testing. C. 48, with the Rabies Control Authority and City Humane Officer carrying out impoundments.