Ridgewood, NJ Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

Ridgewood's animal code, Chapter 105, treats dangerousness as an individual, court-decided fact rather than a breed characteristic. A. 4:19-30, the state's dangerous-dog hearing statute; the Village adopts that state determination rather than drawing up its own list of restricted breeds. The consequence at the local level is financial: § 105-6E adds a license fee specific to a potentially dangerous dog, priced in Chapter 145, Fees, on top of the base dog license every owner already owes under § 105-4 once a dog reaches seven months of age or grows a permanent set of teeth.

That base license, issued by the Division of Health under § 105-5, requires a metal tag bearing the license number, permanently fastened to the dog's collar or harness, and the record kept by the Division tracks the dog's name, breed, sex and age alongside the owner's address. Guide, hearing-ear and service dogs still need the tag but owe no fee. A dog that is the subject of a court's dangerous-dog finding does not lose its right to be kept in the Village; it is folded into this same licensing system with the added fee attached, and its owner remains subject to the license and running-at-large provisions that apply to every dog in Ridgewood.