Sterling Heights, MI Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

The purpose of this section is to establish a procedure for identifying dogs that pose a potential or significant threat to the safety of people, animals, or property, to impose precautionary restrictions on such dogs in an effort to prevent a serious injury from occurring, and to promote responsible ownership of all dogs within the city.

(A)   Determination of a potentially dangerous dog. The determination that a dog is potentially dangerous shall be based on the following specific behaviors exhibited by the dog:

(1)   Menaces, chases, displays threatening or aggressive behavior toward, or otherwise threatens or endangers the safety of a person or domestic animal.

(2)   Causes injury to a person or domestic animal that is less than a severe injury. For purposes of this section, the term "severe" injury means permanent, serious disfigurement, serious impairment of health, or serious impairment of a bodily function.

(3)   Aggressively bites a person or domestic animal. For purposes of this section, the term "aggressively bites" means the dog physically bit the person or animal in a manner not normally associated with playfulness or accidental behavior while exhibiting objective signs of aggression, attack behavior, or intent to harm. The damage inflicted by a bite, or lack thereof, may also be used by animal control officials as a factor in determining whether a bite was aggressive.