Moore, OK Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Section 4-115 opens with a stated purpose: to protect the health, safety and welfare of the community and its wildlife by prohibiting the feeding of wild animals and waterfowl on public and private property within the corporate limits of the City of Moore, because the practice increases property damage, spreads disease among people and companion animals, and disrupts natural migration and predator-avoidance behavior. The operative prohibition is broad: no person shall purposely or knowingly feed, or in any manner provide access to food to, any wild animal or waterfowl within the city, whether the land is publicly or privately owned.

The only carve-out is for legal baiting used in the lawful taking of fish or game, which the section expressly excludes from the definition of feeding. The ordinance's own WILD ANIMAL definition is expansive, naming coyotes, deer, feral cats, bears, wolves, foxes, groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, rats, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, skunks and waterfowl, so a resident who puts out food for deer or a stray-adjacent feral cat colony falls under the same prohibition as someone feeding geese at a pond. Backyard bird feeding is carved out separately under conditions covering feeder size and placement, but that exception does not extend to waterfowl.

Enforcement carries the section's own penalty clause: a conviction is punished as provided in § 1-108, the citywide general penalty of up to $500.00 per offense, and § 1-109 makes each day a violation continues a separate offense. The ordinance was adopted by Ordinance No. 1014.22 on July 18, 2022.