New Brunswick, NJ Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Chapter 6.16 of the New Brunswick Municipal Code was adopted by the City Council in 2005 as Ordinance O-100501. Section 6.16.010 states its purpose: to prohibit the feeding of unconfined wildlife in any public park or on any other property owned or operated by the City of New Brunswick, protecting public health, safety and welfare.

The rule itself is § 6.16.030. No person shall feed, in any public park or on any other property owned or operated by the city, any wildlife. The ban has a defined edge on both sides. On the property side, it reaches city parks and other city-owned or city-operated land, and its text does not mention private yards. On the animal side, it excludes confined wildlife, giving the examples of wildlife confined in zoos, parks or rehabilitation centers, and unconfined wildlife at environmental education centers.

Three definitions in § 6.16.020 set how far the ban reaches. To feed is to give, place, expose, deposit, distribute or scatter any edible material with the intention of feeding, attracting or enticing wildlife, so scattering food to lure animals counts, not only handing it over. Feeding does not include baiting in the legal taking of fish and/or game, so someone baiting in the legal taking of fish or game is outside the chapter. Wildlife means all animals that are neither human or domesticated, which is not limited to any list of species. Person covers an individual, corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, or political subdivision of the state subject to municipal jurisdiction.

Section 6.16.040 puts enforcement in the division of health of the City of New Brunswick and sets the fine at an amount not to exceed $1,000.00.

A related rule sits in Chapter 6.08. The penalty table in § 6.08.070 lists a $50.00 penalty for the feeding of stray cats under § 6.08.020(B), and it doubles the fine for any second offense.