Lexington, KY Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

Under Sec. 4-14, animal control can seize a dog on probable cause that it bit a person or domestic animal without provocation and hold it at the LFUCG animal shelter up to ten days while a court case proceeds; the owner owes a ten-dollar-per-day boarding charge and forfeits the dog if it is not reclaimed within five days of notice. Once a court declares a dog vicious, it must be confined indoors or in a locked pen at least five feet by ten feet with secure sides at least seven feet high, sides embedded two feet into the ground if there is no concrete floor, and it must meet the general care standards of Section 4-2.

Off the property, or moving to and from the pen, the dog must be muzzled and restrained on a chain or leash no longer than six feet under the control of a responsible adult, and the confinement site must post a conspicuous warning notice. No one under eighteen may own, harbor or handle a vicious dog. The urban county animal control officer keeps a photographic registry of every court-declared vicious dog, recording the owner's name, date of birth and address, every location the dog is kept, its vaccination history and microchip data; owners have thirty days to have the dog spayed or neutered and microchipped, and ten days to report any change to that registry information.