Alamance County, NC Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

S. 130A-200; or has been determined by the Sheriff to be 'potentially dangerous' and afterward bites a person, kills or severely injures a domestic animal off the owner's property, or approaches a person off-property in a vicious or terrorizing manner in an apparent attitude of attack. Before a dog is labeled potentially dangerous, the Sheriff must notify the owner in writing with the reasons, and the owner has five days to appeal that determination to the county's three-member Review Board; the dog is treated as potentially dangerous while the appeal is pending.

4 makes it unlawful for the owner to leave it unattended outdoors unless confined in a locked pen or similarly secure structure, or to let it off the property unless it is leashed, muzzled, or otherwise securely restrained and muzzled. Owners transferring a dangerous or potentially dangerous dog must notify both the Sheriff and the new keeper in writing of the dog's history. A dog that bites again or gets loose twice after a dangerous determination can be ordered humanely destroyed by court order, and a dangerous dog can never be adopted out from the county shelter. The dog's custodian must call 911 immediately if a declared dangerous dog gets loose or attacks.