Alexandria, VA Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

1, which Alexandria implements locally through City Code Sec. 5-7-36, defines a 'vicious dog' as a canine or canine crossbreed that has killed a person, inflicted a 'serious injury' (an injury with a reasonable potential to cause death, or any injury other than a sprain or strain, including serious disfigurement, impairment of health, or impairment of bodily function requiring significant medical attention), or continued behavior that previously supported a dangerous-dog finding after the owner was notified. Subsection B sets the court process: a law-enforcement or animal control officer who believes a dog is vicious applies to a magistrate for a summons; the chief animal control officer confines the dog pending an evidentiary hearing, which the statute requires be held within 30 days absent good cause, and the Commonwealth (locally, the City) must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, with the right to a jury trial under Va.

2-260 et seq. If the court finds the dog vicious, it must order euthanasia under Va. 2-6562, and may also order the owner to pay restitution to any person injured and the costs of caring for the dog while impounded. Subsection C is the breed-neutrality clause: no dog may be found vicious solely because of its breed, and owning a particular breed is not itself prohibited; the same subsection exempts a dog reacting to a trespasser, a crime in progress, provocation, or self-defense, and exempts working police dogs.

Subsection D makes an owner guilty of a Class 6 felony if reckless disregard for human life in controlling the dog proximately causes a serious injury to a person. Subsection E authorizes Alexandria to enact a parallel local ordinance, which it has done in Sec. 5-7-36, but bars any locality from imposing a felony penalty of its own; Alexandria's local ordinance instead layers civil requirements onto dogs a local court finds 'dangerous' rather than 'vicious,' such as a $50 registration certificate, $100,000 liability insurance, secure confinement, and permanent tattoo or microchip identification.