Virginia Beach City Ordinance 5-50 requires all dogs and cats over the age of four months to be licensed with a City of Virginia Beach Animal License. Failure to purchase an animal license you would be subject to a fine.
No animal is permitted to run at large within the City.
Dogs being walked on any city sidewalk, city street or public right-of-way, must be on a leash or lead.
All animal bites must be reported. Animal that bites someone must be placed in quarantine for a 10-day period and person bitten should seek medical attention.
The “Barking Dog” ordinance states that it shall be unlawful for any person to keep a dog without exercising proper care and control of such dog to prevent it from disturbing the peace of others by barking in a loud, continuous or untimely manner. Animal Control will look for a cause of the dog’s barking or whether the dog is barking for no reason.
Owners must exercise proper care and control of his animals to prevent them from becoming a public nuisance. Molesting a passerby, attacking without seriously injuring any person without provocation on two or more occasions, chasing vehicles, habitually attacking but not seriously injuring other domestic animals, trespassing upon school grounds, or trespassing upon private property in such manner as to damage property shall be deemed a nuisance. Three or more violations in any twelve-month period shall also be deemed a nuisance.
Persons having in his possession or under his control an animal constituting a nuisance shall be summoned before the General District Court of the City to show cause why such animal should not be confined, disposed of or removed or the nuisance otherwise abated. Upon proof that the animal constitutes a public nuisance, the animal in question shall, by order of the General District Court of the City, either be confined, removed from the City, or the nuisance activity otherwise abated as such court shall order.
It shall be unlawful and shall constitute contempt of court for any person to harbor or conceal any animal which has been ordered disposed of or removed by the General District Court, or to fail to confine or restrain an animal when such an order has been entered by the court.
City code prohibits any owner or person in control of a dog to allow the dog to urinate or defecate on public or private property. It does not constitute a violation on public property if the owner or custodian immediately removes the material defecated and disposes of it in a safe and sanitary manner.
Virginia Beach Animal Control
