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

Rowan County does not regulate dogs by breed. Section 5-39 instead defines a dangerous dog as one that has killed or inflicted severe injury on a person without provocation, one the county's designated authority determines is potentially dangerous based on the behaviors in subsection (b)(2), or any dog kept or trained for dog fighting. A potentially dangerous dog is one that has inflicted severe injury on a person, killed or severely injured a domestic animal off its owner's property, or approached a person off the property in a vicious or terrorizing manner suggesting an attack.

The health director, environmental health supervisor, or animal services director can make the declaration and must notify the owner in writing with the reasons; the owner has three days to file a written objection with the board's appellate subcommittee, which must schedule a hearing within twenty days, and any further appeal goes to Rowan County Superior Court for a hearing de novo. Once declared, the dog stays confined at the county shelter until the owner builds an approved enclosure, a ten-by-ten-foot heavy-gauge chain-link run on a four-inch concrete slab with a secure roof and double padlock, plus 'Beware of Dog' signage, and the owner has three weeks to finish it.

Beyond the property line, a dangerous dog must be leashed, muzzled, and securely restrained at all times, and even on the property it may not go unmuzzled outside a padlocked, roofed enclosure. Exemptions cover police service dogs, herding or predator-control dogs injuring livestock while working, and dogs that hurt someone who was trespassing, tormenting, or committing a crime against them.