Killeen, TX Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

Killeen's Chapter 6, Article IV never lists a breed. Section 6-120 defines a dangerous dog entirely by conduct: a dog that makes an unprovoked attack causing bodily injury outside a secure enclosure, or that commits unprovoked acts elsewhere that would cause a reasonable person to believe it will attack and cause bodily injury. Section 6-119 then bans any dog that meets that behavioral definition outright, stating no dog deemed dangerous will be allowed within the corporate city limits of Killeen. Section 6-121 makes it unlawful to own, keep, or harbor a dog once the owner learns of the dangerous determination, whether from personal knowledge of the qualifying attack or from written notice by animal services.

A person can also be prosecuted for bringing into Killeen a dog already declared dangerous by another jurisdiction under similar rules. Getting to a dangerous-dog determination requires a sworn written complaint or an officer's personal observation, followed by a fact-finding investigation under Sec. 6-122; the dog is impounded at the owner's expense during that investigation. The owner has fifteen calendar days to appeal an administrative dangerous-dog finding to Killeen Municipal Court under Sec. 6-124, and the court cannot order the dog destroyed while that appeal is pending.

If the determination stands, the owner has thirty days to surrender the dog, remove it permanently from the city and register it in the new jurisdiction, or face a court order for humane destruction on the eleventh day after noncompliance. A separate, lower tier, aggressive dog under Sections 6-125 through 6-132, covers unrestrained dogs that threaten, injure, or kill another restrained domestic animal or livestock, with its own registration, insurance, and double-enclosure requirements rather than outright prohibition.