Daviess County, KY Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

10 of the Daviess County Code of Ordinances opens with a blanket command: owners shall restrain all domestic animals except cats. Subsection (A) bars any owner or person in charge of an animal, other than a cat, from permitting it to run at large unless the animal is under the absolute control of the owner or the owner's agent. Subsection (B) separately requires owners to confine female dogs or cats in heat in a building or secure enclosure so they cannot contact another animal except for planned breeding.

Two exceptions appear in subsection (C): a hunting dog assisting during a lawful hunting season is not subject to the restraint rule while actively engaged in the hunt, unless it becomes a physical threat to people or other animals; and an animal raised for commercial purposes and kept on a farm in the county, outside incorporated cities and unincorporated residential neighborhoods and towns, is exempt to the extent it does not physically threaten people or other animals. The rule was adopted as part of Ord.

04(B)(2) and (5) separately treat dogs that run at large or chase and threaten pedestrians, bicyclists or motorists as a public nuisance on top of the restraint violation itself.