South Fulton, GA Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

City Code § 18-1001 defines a 'dangerous dog' as one that, per the records of an appropriate authority, inflicts a severe injury on a human without provocation, or that aggressively bites, attacks, or endangers safety without provocation after already being classified potentially dangerous and after the owner was notified. A 'potentially dangerous dog' is any dog that, without provocation, bites a human on public or private property. Neither definition references breed; both turn entirely on documented conduct, and a dog is not classified as dangerous at all if it bit while used by law enforcement, while defending its owner from attack, while defending against a trespasser or other tort or crime, or in response to being tormented or abused.

Once a dog is declared vicious, dangerous, or potentially dangerous, § 18-4001 imposes real obligations: the owner must keep it under restraint and take reasonable precautions to prevent it from leaving the property unattended, and it must be securely and humanely enclosed in a house, building, fence, or locked pen from which it cannot climb, dig, jump, or escape, with the enclosure locked whenever the animal is unattended. Owners whose dog lives outdoors must fence a perimeter and confine the animal within a separately secured, locked kennel inside that perimeter.

Off the property, a vicious animal may only appear on a street or public place on a leash no longer than six feet, muzzled when appropriate, and under a competent handler; a dangerous dog outside its enclosure must be muzzled and restrained on a substantial chain or leash. Under § 18-1010(g), a dangerous dog is immediately impounded if the owner lacks the required liability insurance or surety bond, lacks valid registration, or lacks a proper enclosure, and an impounded dangerous dog not brought into compliance within 20 days is destroyed.