Chesterfield County, VA Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

Chesterfield's local dangerous-dog control section, former section 4-24, was repealed by ordinance on April 25, 2007, and stands as reserved today; only the definitions of "dangerous dog" and "vicious dog" remain locally in section 4-21. 2-6540, which lets a law-enforcement or animal control officer who believes a dog is dangerous apply to a magistrate for a summons requiring the owner to appear in general district court. The statute sets a real evidentiary bar: the court may only find a dog dangerous if it killed or seriously injured a companion dog or cat, or directly caused a person a serious injury such as a laceration, broken bone or substantial puncture by teeth, and the Commonwealth must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt at a hearing generally held within 30 days.

Critically for breed policy, subsection K bars any dangerous-dog finding based solely on the fact that the dog is a particular breed, and also protects dogs that were provoked, tormented or abused, police dogs performing their duties, and dogs responding to pain, injury or defense of themselves, their kennel, their owner or their offspring. 2-6542, and the court may order restitution to anyone injured. Willful failure of an owner to comply with a dangerous-dog order is separately made a class 1 misdemeanor under Chesterfield County Code section 4-29(c)(2), the county's most serious chapter 4 penalty tier.