Restrictions on keeping poultry, fowl or grazing animals

(a)

For the purpose of this section, the terms hereinafter set forth shall be defined as follows:

Fowl: Live guineas, pea fowls, pheasants and pigeons, except carrier and racing pigeons, kept, harbored, bred and maintained exclusively for such purpose.

Grazing animals: Horses, cows, goats, sheep and rabbits.

Poultry: Live chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese.

Poultry markets: Commercial establishments or places properly zoned and licensed where live poultry or fowl are kept temporarily for the purposes of sale.

(b)

Live poultry, fowl or grazing animals may be kept, harbored, bred or maintained in the city, subject to the following limitations and restrictions:

(1)

No live poultry, fowl or grazing animals shall be kept, harbored, bred or maintained unless the person owning or leasing or occupying the premises on which the same are kept, harbored, bred or maintained secures, possesses and maintains a permit from the county health unit, authorizing the use of the premises for such purpose.

(2)

In no event shall the owner or lessee or occupant of any premises keep, harbor, breed or maintain at any one time more than 15 hens and 30 growing chicks. No roosters shall be kept, harbored, bred or maintained at any time.

(3)

No poultry, fowl or grazing animal pens or houses shall be situated less than 100 feet from any human dwelling, and no poultry, fowl or grazing animal shall be permitted to run at large.

(4)

Poultry, fowl and grazing animal pens shall be kept free from odors and free from fly breeding.

(5)

All food used for poultry, fowl and grazing animals shall be kept in suitable containers with tightfitting covers, so as to be inaccessible to rats.

(6)

All poultry or fowl droppings shall be removed from the pens at least twice weekly, wrapped in paper and placed in covered garbage cans for removal. Droppings shall not be used for fertilizer unless first treated so as to destroy fly maggots.

(c)

The limitations and restrictions set out in subsection (b) of this section shall not be applicable to poultry markets, provided that nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to authorize the operation of a poultry market in an insanitary manner and nothing contained in this section shall be construed to allow or permit the violation of any zoning ordinance of the city or to be in conflict therewith or prevent the rezoning of any property, provided the zone requirements are met and complied with.

(d)

The limitations and restrictions contained in this section shall not be applicable to premises upon which guinea pigs, rabbits or chickens are kept, harbored, bred or maintained exclusively for clinical and medical research purposes, but this subsection shall not be construed so as to authorize the use of such premises in an unsanitary manner.

(Code 1967, § 5-1; Code 1980, § 6-1)

Case Law reference— Case raising, but not deciding, the constitutionality of this section, Bratley v. Nelson, 67 F. Supp. 272. Section held valid, State ex rel. Lockwood v. Nelson, 28 So. 2d 264.