Floyd County, GA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 2-5-21 covers 'domestic animal or livestock,' a category Section 2-5-1 defines to include cats, cows, dogs, fowl, horses, swine, and domesticated wild or exotic animals. The default rule bars tethering such an animal by any chain, rope, tie, leash, or other fastener, indoors, in a vehicle, or outdoors, to anything from a doghouse to a fence to another animal. The only exception is temporary tethering while the owner is actively attending the animal, and only with a properly fitted harness or collar. Even then, Section 2-5-21(c) bans choke, prong, or martingale-style collars; wrapping a tether directly around the animal's neck; a tether assembly that weighs more than 5 percent of the animal's body weight; a tether that limits the animal's range of movement to less than the greater of five feet or one and a half times its body length; tethering that lets the animal reach a street, alley, sidewalk, or other public place; confining an animal in an outside compartment of a running vehicle; or confining it inside a running vehicle with the tether attached to both its collar and the vehicle. These rules replaced a narrower 'staking animals on or near streets' provision under Ordinance No. 2-5-2021.