Animal Ordinances in Waukegan, IL (2026)
14 verified animal ordinances for Waukegan, Illinois, sourced directly from the municipal code and official government pages.
Verified from official government sources
Chickens & Livestock
Waukegan Code § 4-2 flatly bars keeping cattle, sheep, goats, horses, mules, swine, chickens, or any other fowl or livestock anywhere in the city, and declares animals kept in violation a public nuisance. Only horses or mules permitted under other law and animals used for city police work are exempt.
Waukegan Bans Keeping Livestock and Fowl
Heavy RestrictionsWaukegan, IL Code of Ordinances § 4-2(a)-(c)
(a)No person shall keep any cattle, sheep, goat, horse, mule, swine, fowl or other livestock or wild animal at any place or upon any premises in the city. This section shall not apply to horses or mules that are kept as otherwise permitted by ordinance or other law.(b)Animals and fowl kept in violation of subsection (a) of this section are hereby declared to be a public nuisance.(c)Nothing in t...
Dog Leash Laws
Waukegan Code § 4-41 requires owners to keep dogs and cats under restraint at all times, barring them from crossing the property line unleashed or roaming an unfenced yard without a leash. A first offense costs $25.00, rising to $100.00 by the third, and repeat at-large animals must be spayed or neutered within 30 days.
Waukegan Requires Pets Be Leashed, Restrained
Significant RestrictionsWaukegan, IL Code of Ordinances § 4-41(a), (c)
(a)An owner shall keep and maintain his pet under restraint; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to a dog being used for rescue or law enforcement work. It shall be unlawful for an owner to allow the pet to cross outside the property line of its owner, including reaching through, over or under a fence, or to keep or allow his or her pet to be outdoors on in an unfenced portion ...
Breed Restrictions
Waukegan does not ban dogs by breed; instead Sec. 4-101 lets the chief of police declare an individual dog 'dangerous' after an unprovoked attack, impound it during the investigation, and order humane destruction if it injured or killed a person or pet, subject to a seven-day appeal window.
Waukegan Dangerous Dog Declaration Process
Significant RestrictionsWaukegan City Code § 4-101(c), (g)
(c)Prohibition. It shall be unlawful for any person to keep or maintain, within the city:(1)A dog which has been declared by the chief of police or his/her designee to be a dangerous dog.(2)A dog which has been declared by any city, state, or other governmental unit to be a dangerous dog under a substantially similar regulation and process.(g)Penalty. A person who violates this section shall be...
Beekeeping
Waukegan doesn't require a permit to keep bees, but it lets police order hives removed within five days once a neighbor complains that the bees are a vexation, annoyance, or danger, giving the city an on-demand enforcement tool instead of upfront registration.
Waukegan Beekeeping Nuisance Restriction
Light RestrictionsWaukegan City Code § 15-8
No person shall keep hives or swarms of bees in or upon his premises to the vexation, annoyance or danger to any other person. Whenever any complaint is made to the department of police, it shall forthwith be investigated and the owner or keeper of such swarms or hives of bees shall, if the occasion warrants, be given a notice to remove the swarms or hives of bees within five days.
Exotic Pets
Waukegan Code § 4-2 makes it unlawful to keep any wild animal anywhere in the city, and Sec. 4-1 defines a wild animal as any undomesticated species not customarily suited to live in a home. City police animal control can enter a property to seize a prohibited animal and take it to a veterinarian or the impound facility.
Waukegan Bans Keeping Wild Animals as Pets
Heavy RestrictionsWaukegan, IL Code of Ordinances §§ 4-1, 4-2(a)
Wild animals means any species of undomesticated animals not customarily regarded as suited to live within an abode used for human occupancy. Livestock shall not be considered wild animals. ... Sec. 4-2. - Keeping livestock, and fowl, or wild animals prohibited. (a)No person shall keep any cattle, sheep, goat, horse, mule, swine, fowl or other livestock or wild animal at any place or upon any p...
Wildlife Feeding
Waukegan bans any direct or indirect feeding of birds, gulls or other wild animals at the Waukegan Municipal Beach. The rule sits in the beach rules list of Section 11-42 and carries its own $100.00-to-$500.00 penalty schedule under Section 11-45.
No Feeding Wild Animals at Waukegan Beach
Heavy RestrictionsWaukegan, IL Code of Ordinances § 11-42(j)
The following rules shall be in effect at the Waukegan Municipal Beach: ... j.No indirect or direct feeding of birds, gulls, or any other wild animals while at the beach.k.Penalty: See section 11-45 of this Code.
Pet Limits
Waukegan Code § 4-5 limits any household to a combined total of three dogs or cats of licensing age at one time, unless the chief of police grants written permission for more. Owners seeking an exception must file a written request with the chief of police or a designee.
Waukegan Caps Pets at Three Dogs or Cats
Some RestrictionsWaukegan, IL Code of Ordinances § 4-5
Sec. 4-5. - Maximum number of animals. No person shall own or harbor at any one time and at any one place within the city more than a combined total of three cats or dogs of licensing age without written permission from the chief of police or his/her designee. Written requests for such permission shall be filed with the chief of police or his/her designee.
Cat Rules
Waukegan lets residents manage feral cat colonies but only through a registered trap-neuter-return program. Sec. 4-49 requires any caretaker feeding or maintaining a feral colony to register with a TNR program the chief of police approves, and the city can still trap and remove colonies it decides to stabilize.
Waukegan Feral Cat Colony & TNR Rules
Significant RestrictionsWaukegan City Code § 4-49(a) (TNR program definition), (b), (c)
TNR program means a trap, neuter and return program pursuant to which feral and stray cats are trapped, neutered or spayed, micro-chipped, vaccinated against rabies, and returned to the location where they were found. (b)A person or organization wishing to act as a feral cat colony caretaker for feral cats in the city must register with a TNR program approved by the chief of police or his/her d...
Mandatory Spay/Neuter
Waukegan does not order every pet fixed, but City Code Sec. 4-41 makes it mandatory the second time a dog or cat is caught running at large. After a second or subsequent at-large violation, the owner must have the animal spayed or neutered within 30 days of reclaiming it from city police animal control, or it stays impounded.
Waukegan Mandatory Spay/Neuter After 2nd Offense
Some RestrictionsWaukegan City Code § 4-41(c)
(c)Penalty. A person who violates this section for the first time shall be assessed a fee in the amount of $25.00, which shall be charged to the owner prior to redemption of the animal. A person who violates this section for the second time shall be assessed a fee in the amount of $50.00, which shall be charged to the owner prior to redemption of the animal. A person who violates this section f...
Microchipping
Waukegan doesn't require every owner to microchip a pet, but Code § 4-16(b) requires any dog or cat impounded for certain violations to be microchipped before redemption at a $15.00 fee, and § 4-67(f)(8) requires every licensed animal breeder to microchip a dog or cat before selling or transferring it.
Waukegan Microchipping Rules for Pets
Some RestrictionsWaukegan, IL Code of Ordinances §§ 4-16(b), 4-67(f)(8)
An animal so impounded shall, prior to redemption, be microchipped at a cost of $15.00 to be charged to the owner. ... Sec. 4-67(f)(8) Every dog or cat that is sold, delivered, offered for sale, bartered, auctioned, or otherwise transferred pursuant to this section must, prior to the transfer, be micro-chipped. Registration information regarding the microchip shall be provided to the new owner.
Pet Store Rules
Waukegan pet stores cannot sell a dog or cat for anything beyond nominal consideration. Sec. 4-68 bans retail 'pet trader' sales outright, letting stores only host licensed breeders' animals bred on-site, shelter and rescue partnerships, or adoption events instead of walk-in puppy and kitten sales.
Waukegan Bans Retail Sale of Dogs, Cats
Heavy RestrictionsWaukegan City Code § 4-68(a), (b)(1), (d)
(a)Prohibition. No pet trader shall sell, deliver, offer for sale, barter, auction or otherwise transfer, for consideration other than nominal consideration, a dog or cat in the city.(b)Exemptions. This section does not apply to:(1)An animal breeder licensed in accordance with section 4-67 of this Code, which sells, delivers, offers for sale, barters, auctions, or otherwise transfers, for consi...
Pet Groomer Rules
Waukegan classifies pet groomers under 'Personal Services Establishment,' the same zoning category as barbershops and dry cleaners, expressly naming 'animal grooming establishments' in its definition. The use is capped at 3 off-street parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of floor area and is kept legally separate from animal boarding or shelter uses.
Waukegan Pet Grooming Business Zoning Rules
Some RestrictionsWaukegan Unified Development Ordinance (Appendix A) § 13.02 (Personal Services Establishment)
Personal Services Establishment: An establishment primarily engaged in the provision of services of a personal nature. "Personal Service Establishment" includes facilities that sell products and goods in an incidental manner to the establishment's provision of services. "Personal Service Establishment" uses may include, but are not limited to, dry cleaners, barbershops, beauty salons, animal da...
Veterinary Clinic Zoning
Waukegan zones animal boarding facilities and shelters, including the boarding side of veterinary operations, as a conditional use limited to specific business and industrial districts, requiring six-foot privacy fencing for outdoor runs and a ban on siting an unenclosed facility next to residential property.
Waukegan Animal Boarding and Shelter Zoning Rules
Some RestrictionsWaukegan Unified Development Ordinance Sec. 9.02.B.3
3.Animal Boarding or Shelter.a.Location. Animal boarding facilities and shelters that are not entirely enclosed are not allowed directly adjacent to any residential use.b.Outdoor Boarding. Outdoor animal boarding facilities may only be located in the interior side and/or rear yard and must be enclosed with a privacy fence with a minimum height of six feet. See Section 9.03.C.17 (Fence or Wall) ...
Bird Protection
Waukegan's bird-friendly design ordinance requires at least 80 percent of exterior glass, from ground level to 100 feet, to be bird-safe glazing on new or renovated city-owned buildings two stories or taller, but it does not reach privately owned structures.
Waukegan Bird-Friendly Building Design Rule
Light RestrictionsWaukegan City Code §§ 6-382, 6-384
The requirements of this article shall only apply to buildings and structures owned and operated by the City of Waukegan with a height of two stories or more, hereinafter referred to as facilities. ... At least 80 percent of the exterior glass of each newly constructed facility, as defined in section 6-383, from ground level to 100 feet, including but not limited to glass surrounding a green ro...
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