pet duck laws

Call the MSPCA/Nevins Farm in Methuen MA.  They can probably help.

you can try this link-

http://www.municode.com/library/ClientListing.aspx?stateID=21

click on where you live and read carefully....  Check under livestock, animals, etc... and read through...  some will come out and say no poultry, some will not...  if it doesn't say it outright you can call the city hall or village saying you're thinking of moving to the county and want to make sure keeping ducks is legal in that area...

If you're having a hard time looking it up, let me know what county you are in, i'll read it over for you...  I've read through hundreds of municiple codes for suburbs when i moved back to the chicago land area...  i discovered it's illegal to keep duck in any burb, but it's legal in the actual city...  go figure...

also be sure to look up the definitions of the terms:

poultry
livestock
pet
nuisance animal

I would think that possibly your state's Department of Agriculture might be able to answer your question or direct you to an appropriate source.

1duckychick - I am also in MA and found the laws regarding pets on my town's website.  For me it was under the Board of Health and a PDF file about keeping animals in the town.  If you want to see the PDF of the laws in my town PM me and I'll send you the PDF file.    See if your town has a website and if they post their policies online.

I live in Mass..and my town has no laws on their books for chickens or ducks.. (sent hubby to the town hall to ask them.. of course AFTER i already had the birds.. )
I suppose if someone called and complained..they could give me trouble though...

I donno about your area but in my city the law reads that you commit an offense by having more than 4 in X space and blah blah... and then further down it says:

Fails to keep any fowl of the Order Anseriformes from being at large; or
Fails to keep any fowl of the Order Galliformes contained within a coop or pen.

Order Anseriformes = Ducks, Geese, Swans (water fowl)
Order Galliformes = Chickens, Turkeys, Quail ('land' fowl)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the 4 limit includes fowl of either Order...
IE I plan to have 4 hens, but I could have 2 hens, 1 duck and 1 goose, so long as it's not more than four FOWL.

Read the law AND call your animal control department AND the zoning department too, and any homeowners (not an issue in my neighborhood)   Be sure you get a clear definition of fowl... if you assume they mean ANY fowl it may bite you in the tail feathers later if what they really meant was LAND fowl.

The city code probably dates all the way back to when it was common to keep limited amounts of farm animals in town. I mean if you are keeping a horse for transportation how are a few ducks or chickens going to matter?. Wasn't the great Chicago fire blamed on somebodies cow? It was the car that made the suburbs practical...

It doesn't matter when laws went into effect.  Government can choose not to enforce laws already in the books (e.g. It's illegal to eat in a burning building in Chicago) but they can't restrict something that is not explicitly prohibitted.  That's one of the great things about the US legal system - if it isn't explicitly illegal, by statute or common law then it's automatically legal by default.