Rabbit Laws

I didn't know where to post this, so put it here. I have been reading about your guy's laws on rabbits and such, how many you can have, ect. I was wondering, how did you find the laws conserning you? I am hoping rabbits are excempt in my city, but I would like to know for certain.

I checked my city codes on line at their website...I also called the city planners office and the code enforcement officer at the police department to clarify. Here rabbits and chickens may be kept as long as they aren't kept "in a nauseous or obnoxious fashion" ...in other words, according to the code enforcement officer, as long as the neighbors don't complain.

Are you referring to laws governing sale of rabbit meat or something else, such as selling rabbits as pets? Or perhaps you mean regulations about how many rabbits may be kept on one property, etc.

a good place to start is google

(www.google.ca or wwww.google.com)

in canada i would enter

xx (city name/or township) rabbits bylaws

in the states I think what I call a bylaw may be known as an ordinance so I'd use that term ...

would also try "law" "infraction" "regulation" with rabbit and place

it won't gove you everything but will probably point you on the right path

for the U.S., check your state's gov. web site and search for either "rabbits", or look in their agricultural section. (sometimes it' buried) Many states don't have any laws on rabbits, since they're MOSTLY viewed as pets. Our town lets you have as many as you want since they have NO laws about them. as long as the rabbits are contained, and no one complains. Now...I wouldn't make a habit of slaughtering out in the open in town.... Sometimes rabbits can fall under the laws concerning "outbuildings" in town. like..you'd have to get a building permit to put up a rabbit barn in my town.

Wisconsin views rabbits pretty much as it does chickens on farms. have as many as your land use will permit. It's an "animal unit". The deed to your property should have the number of animal units on it (well...actually, I don't know about WA) EVERY state, and often county, are different. County Extension Agent is a great resource.

googling is probably your best bet. You CAN call your local city clerk. Sometimes that brings on a "NO! you can't have those!!!!" response, tho. And then you can't plead the "but I figured, since they're pets..." line

How many rabbits can be kept on one property is what I'm specifically looking for. I will sell my meat rabbits live, since that's what others are doing in the area. I am in the city, so it's pretty important to keep it legal, or, if not completely legal, to hide it pretty well. Although I would rather stay with in the bounderies of the law. Thanks for the responses!

It's generally illegal to butcher or put down an animal within city limits. Other than that I can't find any restrictions anywhere in Iowa that limits any quantity of pets, except dogs and cats, so long as they are well cared for. A few places do restrict dogs and/or cats over a certain age. Otherwise I had 18 guinea pigs in an apartment once and it was not a problem.

If you call your city/county clerk, just don't identify yourself too well and try to sound like this is a hypothetical question "My kids wanna do 4-H and I was wondering if we are even allowed to keep rabbits here?" If you get an out and out no, ask for the ordinance number so that you can "pass this on to the other moms."

Akane, I had never heard the no-butchering-in-city limits thing...but I am in a really small rural town and our codes are few and vague...I just figure that would fall under "if the neighbors don't complain" so I keep it discreet (we have a garden shed), though some of them know we raise for meat. I have nice, tolerant neighbors.

If you can keep on friendly terms with them you can do almost anything!!

Generally there are two places to look.

Check the city/county codes for animal control. Try to make more than one call since you may get two different answers depending on who answers the phone. As mentioned above, try to make it hypothetical.

The other place to check is zoning. A real sticking point can be if you are living in a non-agricultural zone since rabbits are historically classified as livestock by zoning. So often there is no restriction by the city except that zoning says no rabbits in a residential area. If you know there is no sheep, cows, pigs allowed in your area, its a good bet rabbits are not either. Sometimes if you are on 1/2 acre or more, you might be allowed on the basis of "incidental agricultural use" but check your zoning.

I've had animal control tell me no problem only to find zoning on my doorstep telling me I have to get rid of my rabbits in residential area (1/8 acre sized lots). Our rabbits went into hiding from that point forward.

Have a good day!

Ive butchered, and I just keep quiet. I am set up pretty well for that, and since most of my neighbors are hispanic, they are pretty cool with it. I have some advance orders. Actually, I think they are just happy WE are cool with it. One family brougt in a live goat and dispatched it right in the pickup truck. It of course warrented a "you should not be doing that where people can see you" but we kept it quiet. At least rabbits dont bleat. I just close up my blinds and do it in the kitchen, and Hubby takes the toddler to Nana's for the day.

Good idea to make a vauge inquiry, wouldn't want them to come pay me a visit, espessially since they re outside now. I am trying to look at my city's website, but something is wrong with it and keeps shutting my internet down.

LOL, I knew that ad was yours. I called the animal control dept. and the extention office. Both told me as long as they weren't a noise nuisance (um, yeah...me and my barking rabbits), and didn't create a smell and were properly cared for, it didn't matter. You might try those two places.

Barking rabbits, hmmm, I was wondering where that noise came from! Now I know, It's your barking stock! (no wonder you gave me such a good deal) LOL.

The craigslist ad?

I did calling and searching when we were setting our rabbits up. I had trouble getting calls back, but I finally found that an addition of less than 100 square feet with no floor needed no permit. As far as rabbits go, there are no references to rabbits in our laws. Dogs, cats, all the way up to the most exotic snake or bird, and cows, goats, sheep, and pigs... but absolutely nothing about rabbits. So I figure I've only got 4 working rabbits here and their offspring which only hang around a short time, so I shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I searched the ordinances, and came up with NOTHING. This means they are excempt? I will probably call with the 4-h question, on monday...

Rabbits often fall through the cracks. A LOT depends on how your town/city/county classifies them. Quite often they just lump them in with something else as "other animals" since they can't write ordinances for every species separately. In our county, as someone comes in and asks about <species>, it gets added to the list of "and other animals" until there are enough inquires about them, then they get their own section. (I talked a LOT to our city clerk about honey bees)

I hope you keep us updated on what you find!

Try searching for your county zoning or planning. A lot of them are on the internet now for your convenience.

Planning ordinances basically outline where certain activities will be restricted and where it is permitted. This is so commercial factory is not operating on the same street as single family homes and so people are not raising cows and sheep on small lots. Rabbit raising is usually considered farm use or agricultural use which is usually limited to larger parcels, even though rabbits have small space requirements.

I don't know what county you are in, but I tried BAKER COUNTY OR ZONING that took me to a page of zoning definitions.

After some clicking around I found this page on Baker County Planning department
http://www.bakercounty.org/planning/tab ... tents.html

Then I found this under Definitions
http://www.bakercounty.org/planning/Art ... _108a.html


Farm use: The current employment of land for the primary purpose of obtaining a profit in money, including that portion of such land under buildings supporting accepted farming practices, by raising, harvesting and selling crops or by the feeding, breeding, management and sale of or the produce of livestock, poultry, fur-bearing animals, or honeybees, or for dairying and the sale of dairy products or any other agricultural or horticultural use or animal husbandry or any combination thereof. Farm use includes the preparation and storage of the products raised on such land for man's use and animal use and disposal by marketing or otherwise. (See ORS 215.203 for a complete description).

Now, the production of livestock, poultry, fur-bearing animals can include rabbits, as can animal husbandry.

Try contacting your county 4H office. They may have somebody who is familiar with rabbit laws in your county.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios

I just figure that would fall under "if the neighbors don't complain" so I keep it discreet (we have a garden shed), though some of them know we raise for meat. I have nice, tolerant neighbors.

If you can keep on friendly terms with them you can do almost anything!!

Click to expand...

I think this is key. Most laws are brought about to keep everybody happy, ie, as mentioned above, no commercial factory in a residential area. If the neighbors are on board or tolorant of the situation, then there's no problem unless it's made into one.

That's the down side.

Anybody can have your rabbits tossed in that situation. My problem did not begin until after a new person moved in at the back fence. We were told we could have 4 adult rabbits after that. So the rest had to disappear.

In a worst case scenario you could have all your animals seized by Animal Control then have to pay $100s of dollars per day for the AC to care for them and then have them spayed/neutered or sold to other people before you can get them back.

So it is real important to know what your legal standing is.

Have a good day!

Shrarvrs, I live in Oregon too (Portland though) and this is the link that I found. Hope it helps. Basically it does say that you need a permit for 3 or more animals such as chickens or rabbits. I was surprised because I knew we were ok with our 3 chickens without a permit but since we have added rabbits, we officially went over the limit.

http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/i ... cid_185338

The specific info is under: 13.05.015 Permit Required for Specified Animal Facility
It reads like it applies to rabbits kept outdoors or in a garage, etc.

I found out in Salem (I called) that it's okay to have rabbits, no limit. I also found out that Salem rules don't apply in Keizer, which is where I live, so I need to find out more. However, since I am moving, I decided to just continue where I am at, And figure out rules for Burns. The other town I may move to is Ukiah, OR, and there are no rules out there. Or none that they enforce. We had goats and dogs and chickens and rabbits ll in city limits.It' kind of a what ever works, out there, as long as no one complains.