Jonesboro, AR Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Sec. 10-50 of the Jonesboro Code of Ordinances flatly bars any person owning, possessing, or keeping a dog from allowing it to run at large within the city, with a narrow carve-out for certified police canines performing a valid law enforcement function. When a loose dog is impounded, the owner must pay a redemption fee set by the city council to retrieve it from the city pound kennel, and Sec. 10-50(b)(1) puts the burden on the owner to prove the dog's rabies vaccination before animal control will release it.

Under Sec. 10-46, all dogs three months or older kept in the city must be vaccinated annually against rabies and wear a metal vaccination tag at all times, so a loose dog picked up without a tag is treated under Sec. 10-49 as stray or abandoned and can be humanely destroyed within 24 hours unless the owner reclaims it in that window. Sec. 10-50(b)(2) makes running a dog at large a misdemeanor, and any fine imposed is in addition to the impoundment and reclamation fees the owner already owes.

Related confinement duties reinforce the leash rule: Sec. 10-47(c) separately makes it unlawful to tether a dog to a fixed object except under narrow conditions, and hand-held leashes remain the only unrestricted way to walk a dog off the owner's property under that section. Repeat offenders face compounding costs, since Sec. 10-88 treats a third impoundment of the same owner's animal as grounds for a municipal court citation.