Jefferson County, WI Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

" Both conditions trigger the same response: county-designated animal control officers "shall capture and restrain any dog running at large or untagged," meaning impoundment is the county's standard reaction rather than a warning-only system. The ordinance carves out an exception for municipalities that have adopted their own dog-control ordinance under Wis. 23(30): where a town, village or city has passed its own at-large law under that statute, § 14-119 does not apply there and the local ordinance controls instead, so residents of towns with their own dog ordinance should check the town code first.

Owners face a double penalty track: a negligent or otherwise permitted violation draws a penalty under § 14-145 (the same forfeiture section used for the county's rabies and licensing violations) and, separately, the state forfeiture set out in Wis. 042(4). Because § 14-116 also requires every dog over five months old to carry a current license, a dog found both unleashed and unlicensed can face both the at-large violation and a separate licensing violation before it is released back to its owner.