Otero County, NM Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

Section 105-6 defines DANGEROUS DOG as a dog that caused a serious injury to a person or domestic animal, unprovoked, and VICIOUS ANIMAL as any animal that, without provocation, attacks, bites, seriously injures or kills a person or other animal; neither definition turns on the animal's breed. Section 105-8G(1) requires that a vicious or dangerous animal be securely confined in an escape-proof, locked structure, with the owner posting warning signs telling people to keep a safe distance; a person attacked may use reasonable force to repel the attack, and an animal services officer who finds the confinement inadequate and a substantial danger to the public may take control of the animal and hold it in a humane, safe cage pending court action, consistent with the owner's constitutional rights.

Section 105-8G(2) makes it unlawful to keep or harbor a vicious animal at all: once a Community Service Officer has probable cause, the animal may be impounded into protective custody pending court proceedings, and if a court determines the animal is vicious, it must, in addition to any fine or imprisonment, order the owner to have it humanely destroyed or surrendered to the Sheriff for destruction. Section 105-8G(3) further authorizes a Community Service Officer or deputy who encounters a stray vicious or dangerous animal that threatens human life to destroy it on the spot if it cannot be safely captured. Section 105-11B(2) separately allows destroying any dog caught in the act of wounding livestock, wounding or killing poultry, or attacking a human.