For the purposes of this article, the following
words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to
them by this section:
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]
An enclosure wherein dogs are kept and from which they cannot
escape.
Horses, mules, ponies, cattle, sheep, goats, swine and enclosed
domesticated rabbits or hares.
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.
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.
All domestic fowl and game birds raised in captivity.
The treasurer of the County or other officer designated by
law to collect taxes in the County.
A.
The boundary line of each lot or tract of land or
any stream in the County shall be a lawful fence as to any horses,
mules, cattle, hogs, sheep or goats.
B.
It shall be unlawful for the owner or manager of any
horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep or goats to permit any such animals
to run at large beyond the limits of his own lands.
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.
