Many Decatur residents are devoted dog owners (sidenote: if you’re looking for just the right canine companion, LifeLine Animal Project is offering free pet adoptions in June) and spend lots of time walking their dogs around the city and visiting Decatur’s popular dog parks. For the safety of everyone, dogs should be on a leash when out and about or securely fenced when outdoors at home.
Here is the complete law, straight from the Decatur Code of Ordinances:
Sec. 14-33. – Duty of owner to keep animal under restraint while on property.
(a)
It shall be the duty of every owner of any animal, or anyone having possession or custody of any animal, to ensure that the animal is kept under restraint and that reasonable care and precautions are taken to prevent the animal from leaving, while unattended, the real property limits of its owner, possessor or custodian, and to ensure that:
(1)
The animal is securely and humanely enclosed within a house, building, fence, pen or other enclosure out of which it cannot climb, dig, jump or otherwise escape on its own volition. Such enclosure must be securely locked at any time the animal is left unattended.
(2)
No animal shall be chained, tethered or otherwise tied to any inanimate object such as a tree, post or building, outside of its own enclosure as provided for in paragraph (a)(1).
(3)
The animal is on a leash and under the control of a competent person; or is off leash and obedient to that person’s command and that person is pre
sent with the animal any time it is not restrained as provided for in paragraph (a)(1) of this subsection.
Sec. 14-34. – Duty of owner to keep animal under restraint while off of property.
It shall be the duty of the owner of any animal or anyone having an animal in his/her possession to keep the animal under restraint at all times while the animal is off the real property limits of the owner, possessor, or custodian. For the purposes of this section, an animal is deemed under restraint when it is confined within a vehicle, parked or in motion, is secured by a leash or other device held by a competent person, is within the boundaries of a designated dog park under voice command of a competent person and such person is present with the animal, or the animal is properly confined within an enclosure with the permission of the owner of the property where the enclosure is located. A violation of this section shall be punishable as provided in section 1-12.
