Burlington, WI Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

The City Code does not list prohibited dog breeds anywhere in Chapter 104, Animals. What it has instead is a case-by-case vicious animal process in § 104-16(C), Keeping of wild and vicious animals. The subsection first bans harboring or keeping a vicious animal within the City outright. It then gives officers a seizure-and-adjudication path: any animal found off the premises of its owner may be seized by a police officer or humane officer, and once a court of competent jurisdiction is satisfied, to its satisfaction, of the animal's vicious character, that animal may be killed by a police or humane officer.

The subsection carves out two exceptions from the underlying keeping ban: animals under the control of a law enforcement or military agency, and animals kept for the protection of property, provided those protection animals are restrained by a leash or chain, cage, fence, or other adequate means that keeps them from contact with the general public or with people who have actual or implied permission to be on the premises. Subsection D adds a narrow, unrelated allowance for temporary permits to keep homeless infant animals native to the area.

Because the standard is judicial and behavioral rather than a breed list, a dog's breed alone cannot trigger seizure or a vicious finding under this section; the City must show the animal's actual vicious character to a court before it can be destroyed.