Smyrna, TN Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

The rule is § 10-204 of the Smyrna Municipal Code, Title 10, Chapter 2. Subsection (1) makes it unlawful for any person to own or keep any dog known to be vicious or dangerous unless the dog is so confined and/or otherwise securely restrained as to provide reasonably for the protection of other animals and persons. The trigger is knowledge that the dog is vicious or dangerous. The section names no breed, and none of the sections in Chapter 2 lists a banned or restricted breed. It also prints no muzzle, insurance, fence height, registration, or signage requirement, and it does not define vicious or dangerous, so the test is the dog's known conduct and whether the confinement is reasonable protection for others.

Related sections fill in the enforcement picture. Section 10-203 bars any dog from running at large. If a dog has bitten any person, or is suspected of having bitten one or of being infected with rabies, § 10-206 lets the animal control officer or the Chief of Police cause it to be confined or isolated for as long as he or she reasonably deems necessary to determine whether it is rabid. Under § 10-207, a dog found at large can be seized by a police officer and impounded in a pound designated by the Town Council. Under § 10-208, a dog running at large that cannot be safely impounded because of its viciousness or apparent rabies infection can be summarily destroyed by any police officer or other properly designated officer.

Every dog also carries the baseline duties of vaccination against rabies and registration under the state's Anti-Rabies Law (§ 10-201) and a tag evidencing both (§ 10-202). Enforcement in the Town of Smyrna runs through the police department, whose Chief and animal control officer appear by title in the chapter.