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

Sec. 20-23(d) of the County Parks and Recreation Ordinance, part of the "Resource protection" article adopted by Ord. No. 18-12 on March 20, 2018, makes it unlawful to give, offer, or attempt to give any wild animal any food item, tobacco, alcohol, foreign object or other known noxious substance, or to attempt to pet a wild animal, anywhere on County park property. The same subsection separately bars taking, molesting, harming, frightening, killing, trapping, hunting, chasing, teasing, shooting or throwing missiles at any animal, and bars possessing eggs, nests or young without authorization.

It also prohibits luring or calling wildlife by any means, including the use of vocalizations and digital means to attract any wildlife, unless the Parks and Recreation Director or designee has authorized it, a clause that reaches modern practices like phone-app bird calls and predator calls used to draw animals in for photos. Only the Director or designee can transplant or remove an animal from park property, and nuisance-wildlife control is likewise reserved to that office under Sec. 20-23(d). The prohibition sits inside Article II of Chapter 20, so it reaches every County park, preserve, beach and littoral water under Parks and Recreation jurisdiction, from neighborhood parks to the Sanibel Causeway Islands, but it does not reach private land or waters outside the park system.