Madison County, AL Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Section 45-45-170 lets the Madison County Commission run an animal control shelter program and requires every dog and cat in the county to carry an annual license, priced by the commission at not less than $1 and not more than $6. A dog or cat picked up without one is held 10 days before it is sold or destroyed, and the owner can reclaim it for $1 to $10 if the animal is spayed or neutered, $1 to $20 if it is not. Subsection (e) exempts any dog or cat that is on its owner's property or on a leash from that licensing section entirely.

01 goes further, authorizing the Commission to adopt its own ordinance regulating and preventing dogs or other animals running at large countywide, including impounding and destroying them, so long as that ordinance does not conflict with Section 45-45-170. The Legislature built in one protection for compliant owners: no ordinance passed under this authority may allow the county to impound a dog that carries a current Madison County license and a current rabies inoculation unless the Commission has actually received a complaint about that dog running at large.

The Commission may also create an animal control officer position, serving at its pleasure, to administer these provisions and any rules the Commission adopts under them. All fees collected go into a dedicated animal control fund and cannot be diverted to other county purposes.