Portland, ME Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Sec. 5-110, adopted in 2002, prohibits intentionally dispensing food, substances, or seeds to feed wildlife on public ways or city-owned or controlled property, but only within the Portland Downtown District as established by City Council Order #306 (1992) and amended by Order #185 (1995). Sec. 5-110(b) defines 'wildlife' narrowly as any undomesticated or untamed bird or animal without a known owner, expressly including pigeons and squirrels but expressly excluding dogs and deer, meaning the ordinance does not reach deer-feeding complaints outside this district. Sec. 5-110(c) carves out Lincoln Park entirely, so feeding there is not covered by this section.

Sec. 5-111 builds in a mandatory grace period: before any citation can issue, an officer must give one verbal or written warning, and if the person stops the conduct, no citation follows; once that single warning has been given to an individual, no further warnings are legally required before future citations. Because the prohibition is geographically limited to the Downtown District and defines wildlife to exclude deer, it functions as a narrow urban-nuisance measure aimed at pigeon and squirrel feeding downtown rather than a citywide wildlife-management rule.