Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Trinidad and Tobago?

The national texts we read (Act No. 21 of 2020, and others in versions updated to 31 Dec 2016; each finding gives its date) don't settle registration or who decides where hens can live. Here's what they do say.

Read from 6 official sources41 passages quotedChecked October 29, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Not established

National keeping rule

No rule identified

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule identified

A sourced reading of national law in Trinidad and Tobago, not legal advice. Local ordinances and zoning, HOA rules, and any local rooster or coop limits aren't covered here yet: check your local code before you get hens.

Keeping your flock

These findings cover the national scope stated below. They do not determine whether chickens are allowed at a particular home. City zoning, property restrictions and other local rules are outside this research.

Registering as a poultry keeper

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: Trinidad and Tobago

Applies to: Owners or people in charge of animals, including poultry, under the Animal (Diseases, Importation, Health and Welfare) Act as amended by Act No. 21 of 2020 (in operation from 1 June 2021).

Outside this finding's scope

  • No standing duty to register a backyard flock was found in the sections read (amended ss.3, 4, 5, 5A-5I, 13 and 18A-18L). This does not prove that none exists.
  • Regulations made under the amended Act were not read, apart from the 2025 amendment to the import control regulations.

What the checked sources say

  • The Inspector decides the most appropriate way to identify and trace animals, and regulations may set up animal identification, traceability and movement systems (amended Act ss.5H, 13(2)(p)).
  • Separately, in the text updated to 31 December 2016, the Praedial Larceny Prevention Act requires sellers of agricultural produce or livestock of twenty-five kilograms or more to register, unless they hold a valid Farmer's Registration Card issued by the Minister to farmers (ss.2, 3); that is a selling rule, not a flock register.

Authority: The Inspector under the Act (the Technical Officer (Animal Health), including the Chief Veterinary Officer), in the Ministry of the Minister responsible for animal health

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

Bird-flu housing orders

Current status needs rechecking

An official current-status link has not been established.

Orders can change between checks. A missed check or an expired order does not establish that no order applies.

Housing-order finding as checked on 2026-10-29

The scope and conditions below are a dated record, not confirmation of today's position.

No rule identified in this research

This does not establish that no authority can order poultry to be housed or confined.

Uses housing orders in this scope: Not established from the sources checked.

Jurisdiction: Trinidad and Tobago

Applies to: Animals, including poultry, under the Animal (Diseases, Importation, Health and Welfare) Act; infection with avian influenza viruses is a notifiable disease in Schedule 1.

Outside this finding's scope

  • No standing order requiring backyard flocks to be housed was identified in the texts read. This page does not say whether any order or emergency applies now.
  • The Fowl Pest Order was read in the text updated to 31 December 2016; whether the 2020 amendments changed its effect was not established.

What the checked sources say

  • Anyone who detects or suspects a notifiable disease must report it to a veterinary officer or private veterinary surgeon, and anyone with a diseased or infested animal in their possession or charge must, within twenty-four hours, give notice that it is diseased or suspected to be diseased to the nearest private veterinary surgeon or veterinary officer (amended Act ss.4(1)(b), 5A(2)).
  • Where a veterinary officer suspects a notifiable disease in any premises, he must inform the Inspector without delay and, on the Inspector's approval, declare a provisional infected zone (s.5(1)).
  • Where the Inspector has reasonable grounds to suspect an outbreak of a disease, or a high risk of one, the Minister must, on the Inspector's written recommendation, declare a disease emergency by Order, which can specify the duties of persons in the provisional infected zone; sanitary measures the Inspector approves in emergencies must be published in the Gazette, two daily newspapers and the electronic media (s.5E(1), (5)).
  • In the Fowl Pest Order as it stood in the text updated to 31 December 2016 (whether it still has effect after the 2020 amendments was not established), the occupier of premises with poultry affected or suspected of being affected with fowl pest, which includes Newcastle disease and fowl plague, must at once detain all poultry on the premises (para. 4(1)(b)).
  • For current measures, check with the Ministry of the Minister responsible for animal health (an archived 2020 page of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries listed the Poultry Surveillance Unit at the National Animal Disease Centre, provided by Animal Production & Health, for poultry disease services).
Checked
Recheck due

Historical evidence, as checked

These quotations record what was checked on the dates shown. They do not confirm an order's current status.

Small-flock welfare minimums

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Trinidad and Tobago

Applies to: Anyone (cruelty offence) and any owner or person in charge of an animal (care duties); animal includes birds and all other animals, domestic or wild (Act No. 21 of 2020, in operation from 1 June 2021).

What the checked sources say

  • An owner or person in charge must give the animal a sufficient and suitable diet, access to sufficient and clean water, proper shelter and housing, veterinary care when needed, and humane care and treatment (s.18I(1)).
  • No owner or person in charge may cause, or permit another person to cause, the unnecessary suffering or death of an animal (s.18I(2)).
  • Cruelly beating, ill-treating, starving, neglecting or otherwise maltreating any animal is an offence (s.18A(1)); the same 2020 Act repealed sections 78 to 90 of the Summary Offences Act (s.37(g)).

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: Trinidad and Tobago

Applies to: Municipal Corporations, whose Councils may make bye-laws for the good rule and government of the Municipality and to prevent and suppress nuisances (Municipal Corporations Act s.221(1), text updated to 31 December 2016).

Outside this finding's scope

  • No national rule on how many chickens may be kept, or where, was found in the texts read. The national texts' silence on poultry numbers is not permission to keep chickens.
  • No municipal bye-law was read; the Public Health Ordinance was not read.
  • Whether the Municipal Corporations Act reaches Tobago was not established: no Municipal Corporation for Tobago appears in the Act's Schedules in the text read, so who could make local keeping rules there was not established.

What the checked sources say

  • In the text updated to 31 December 2016, Municipal Councils may make bye-laws for the good rule and government of the Municipality and for preventing and suppressing nuisances (Municipal Corporations Act s.221(1)).
  • The national welfare duties to provide food, water, shelter and housing apply to any owner or person in charge of an animal (Animal (Diseases, Importation, Health and Welfare) Act s.18I(1)).
  • Ask your Municipal Corporation whether its bye-laws limit poultry keeping; who sets such rules in Tobago was not established.

The official wording

  • a Council may make such Bye-laws, Rules, and Regulations as to it seems proper for the good rule and government of the Municipality and for the prevention and suppression of nuisances not already punishable in a summary manner by virtue of any written law.

    Municipal Corporations Act, Chap. 25:04, s.221(1) · Checked

  • 18I. (1) An owner or person in charge of an animal shall provide such animal with— (a) a sufficient and suitable diet; (b) access to sufficient and clean water; (c) proper shelter and housing which are—

    Act No. 21 of 2020, s.26 (new s.18I(1)) · Checked

This does not establish that keeping is unrestricted or that all rules are local.

Selling eggs in Trinidad and Tobago? →Licence, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: Licence: depends

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Trinidad and Tobago?
Registration: no rule identified. The finding covers: Owners or people in charge of animals, including poultry, under the Animal (Diseases, Importation, Health and Welfare) Act as amended by Act No. 21 of 2020 (in operation from 1 June 2021). Outside this finding's scope: No standing duty to register a backyard flock was found in the sections read (amended ss.3, 4, 5, 5A-5I, 13 and 18A-18L). This does not prove that none exists. Regulations made under the amended Act were not read, apart from the 2025 amendment to the import control regulations. Authority: The Inspector under the Act (the Technical Officer (Animal Health), including the Chief Veterinary Officer), in the Ministry of the Minister responsible for animal health.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Trinidad and Tobago?
The national sources we read don't settle it, though they name the bodies shown under “National rules on keeping poultry” on this page. Check your local rules before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in Trinidad and Tobago?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. We haven't confirmed an official current-status page for it.

Allowed where you live? Then keep the records.

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