TOWN OF WINCHESTER
MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS
REGULATING FEEDING OF WATER FOWL
The Board of Health, Town of Winchester, Massachusetts, in accordance with, and under the authority granted by Section 31, of Chapter 111 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, hereby adopted the following and regulations at a meeting of the Board on April 8, 1991.
PREAMBLE:
Nonmigratory wild geese have reached a large population within the Town of Winchester. They have soiled town parks, playfields, ponds and reservoirs with droppings making them unsuitable for public use. Feeding has contributed to the increasing size of the geese population and to litter in other parks and other public areas. Excess breadstuffs contribute to the problem of’ rats in these same public areas. One step in reducing these problems is to stop feeding these wild birds.
SECTION A:
No person shall distribute any food to any water fowl or scatter any foodstuffs upon or around any reservoir, public park, recreation area, or in any public place within the Town of Winchester. The distribution of any food which may be provided by the town for feeding of wild or domestic
animals shall be exempt from this regulation. The feeding of bird seed or cracked corn in quantities not exceeding 1/4 pound per family per day at the Mill Pond adjacent to the Town Hail shall also be exempt from this regulation.
SECTION B: Enforcement:
These regulations are applicable and shall be enforced by the Winchester Board of Health and its agents and designees and/or by any other agent of the town to whom police powers have been delegated and further as provided in the underlying statue referenced above and by town charter and by-laws.
SECTION C:
Each of these regulations shall be construed as separate to the end. that, if any regulation or sentence, clause or phrase thereof, shall be held invalid for any reason, the remainder of that regulation and all other regulations shall continue in full force.
ENACTED AND PROMULGATED BY THE WINCHESTER, BOARD OF HEALTH