For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER
Any animal control officer or any deputy animal control officers appointed under this article and in accordance with § 3.2-6555, Code of Virginia.
[Amended 9-16-2008; 10-18-2011]
KENNEL
An enclosure wherein dogs are kept and from which they cannot escape.
LIVESTOCK
Horses, mules, ponies, cattle, sheep, goats, swine and enclosed domesticated rabbits or hares.
OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
All other persons employed or elected by the people of the state or by any municipality, County or incorporated town thereof whose duty it is to preserve the peace, to make arrests or to enforce the law within the jurisdiction of the respective offices to which elected or in which employed.
OWN AND OWNER
Any person having a right of property in a dog, any person who keeps or harbors a dog or has it in his care or who acts as its custodian and any person who permits a dog to remain on or about any premises occupied by him.
POULTRY
All domestic fowl and game birds raised in captivity.
TREASURER
The treasurer of the County or other officer designated by law to collect taxes in the County.
It shall be unlawful for any person to allow or permit any fowl, poultry or livestock of any description to stray to any highway or public property or private premises of another, and all poultry, fowl and livestock shall be sufficiently confined or fenced up by the owner or person exercising control over such poultry, fowl or livestock so as to prevent such poultry, fowl or livestock from trespassing or straying.
Each stable, pen, coop or other place where any animal or fowl is kept shall be maintained at all times in a safe and sanitary condition and so as not to constitute a nuisance. Solid and liquid waste matter shall be removed as frequently as may be necessary to prevent offensive odors or to prevent accumulations constituting a hazard to the health or safety of any person.
No person shall suffer or permit any animal belonging to him or under his control, and known to be dangerous or reasonably suspected of being dangerous, to go at large within the County. If the owner or such person having control, upon notice that such animal is at large, fails to take it into custody forthwith and its running at large creates a danger to the public or to any person or property, the animal shall be killed forthwith by order of the Sheriff when deemed necessary for public safety.
[Amended 6-18-1990]
A. 
Any person who overrides, overdrives, overloads, tortures, ill-treats, abandons, willfully inflicts inhumane injury or pain not connected with bona fide scientific or medical experimentation or cruelly or unnecessarily beats, maims, mutilates or kills any animal, whether belonging to himself or another; or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food, drink or shelter; or willfully sets on foot, instigates, engages in or in any way furthers any act of cruelty to any animal; or carries or causes to be carried in or upon any vehicle, vessel or otherwise any animal in a cruel, brutal or inhumane manner so as to produce torture or unnecessary suffering; or causes any of the above things or, being the owner of such animal, permits such acts to be done by another shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
B. 
Any person who abandons any dog, cat or other domesticated animal in any public place, including the right-of-way of any public highway, road or street or on the property of another, shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor.
C. 
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the dehorning of cattle.
[Added 9-19-2017]
This section is passed pursuant to Va. Code § 3.2-6543 et seq. which authorizes localities to pass ordinances preventing cruelty to animals.
A. 
"Tether" shall mean, when used as a noun, any device, including, but not limited to, a chain, leash, cable, tie-down, or tie-out, attached to a stationary point or object, trolley or run used to contain or restrain a dog or other canine (as used in this section, "canine" shall mean a hybrid of the domestic dog and any other species of the Canidae family). When used as a verb, "tether" shall mean to attach such a device to a dog or other canine.
B. 
No person shall tether or cause to be tethered any dog or other canine except when the tether meets the following conditions:
(1) 
Appropriate to the age and size of the dog or other canine, and the tether shall weigh no more than 10% of the animal's weight;
(2) 
Attached to the dog or other canine by a properly applied collar, halter, or harness configured so as to protect the dog or other canine from injury and prevent the dog or other canine or tether from becoming entangled with other objects or animals, or from extending over an object or edge that could result in the strangulation or injury of the dog or other canine;
(3) 
At least three times the length of the dog or other canine, as measured from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail, except when the dog or other canine is being walked on a leash or is attached by a tether to a lead line; and
(4) 
Utilized for farming activities as provided under Code of Virginia Title 3.2.
C. 
It shall be unlawful for a person to tether any dog or other canine:
(1) 
When the dog or other canine is four months old or younger;
(2) 
When the dog or other canine is a female in estrus;
(3) 
When the temperature is less than 32° F. or greater than 90° F. unless the dog or other canine is provided adequate shelter under Virginia Code § 3.2-6500;
(4) 
If the tether weighs more than 10% of the dog's or other canine's body weight;
(5) 
On the same tether concurrently with another dog or canine; or
(6) 
For longer than 12 hours in any twenty-four-hour period on a movable tether such as a cable run or for longer than four hours in any twenty-four-hour period on a fixed tether.
D. 
Any person found to be in violation of the section shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500. Nothing contained in this section shall be interpreted as limiting the authority of any animal control officer or other law enforcement officer to seize the unlawfully tethered dog or other canine pursuant to his or her authority under Virginia Code § 3.2-6569.
A. 
If any person casts any dead animal or fowl into a road or knowingly permits any dead animal or fowl to remain unburied upon his property when offensive to the public or, having in custody any maimed, diseased, disabled or infirm animal or fowl, leaves it to lie or be in a street, road or public place, he shall be fined not exceeding $300.
B. 
The owner of any animal or grown fowl which has died, when he knows of such death, shall forthwith have its body cremated or buried, and if he fails to do so, any magistrate, after notice to the owner, if he can be ascertained, shall cause any such dead animal or fowl to be cremated or buried by an officer or other person designated for the purpose, and the officer or other person shall be entitled to recover of the owner of every such animal or fowl so cremated or buried a fee adequate to reimburse costs, to be recovered in the same manner as officers' fees are recovered, free from all exemptions in favor of such owner. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to a fine not exceeding $20 for each offense.
[Amended 6-18-1990]
It shall be unlawful for the owner or manager of any horse, mule, cattle, hog, sheep or goat to permit any such animal to run at large beyond the line of its own land within the County beyond the lawful fence lines as established in this County. Any person found guilty of violating this section shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment in the County jail for a term not to exceed 30 days, either or both, provided that if any person is charged with this offense and has been convicted within one year previously of the same offense, that person shall be fined not less than $500 or imprisoned in the County jail for a term not exceeding 30 days, either or both.
[Amended 6-18-1990; 10-18-2011]
All dogs in this County which are licensed and all dogs and cats under four months of age shall be deemed to be personal property and may be the subject of larceny and malicious or unlawful trespass, and the owners thereof may maintain any action for killing of any such dogs or cats for injury thereto, for unlawful detention or for use thereof as in the case of other personal property. It shall be unlawful for any person to administer poison to any such dog or cat, to expose poison where it may be taken by any such dog or cat or to injure, disfigure, disable or kill any dog or cat except as otherwise provided in this chapter. The owner of any dog on which the current license tax has been paid or any dog or cat under four months of age which is injured or killed contrary to the provisions of this chapter or any other law shall be entitled to recover the value thereof or the damage done thereto in an appropriate action at law. An Animal Control Officer or other law enforcement officer finding a stolen dog or cat or a dog or cat held or detained contrary to law shall have authority to seize and hold such dog or cat pending action before the County or other court. If no such action is instituted within five days, the Animal Control Officer or other officer shall deliver the dog or cat to its owner. The presence of a dog or cat on the premises of a person other than its legal owner shall raise no presumption of theft against the owner or occupant of such premises, but it shall be his duty to notify the Animal Control Officer immediately, and the Animal Control Officer shall take such dog or cat in charge and notify its legal owner to remove the dog or cat. The legal owner of the dog or cat shall pay a reasonable charge for the keep of such dog or cat while in the possession of the Animal Control Officer.