Otero County, NM Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Section 105-8D, "Domestic animals running at large," makes it unlawful for an owner to allow or permit any domestic animal to run at large in or on any alley, street, sidewalk, vacant lot, public property or other unenclosed place in the County, or on private property without the property owner's permission; the prohibition does not reach a person's own animals on their own private property. A domestic animal caught running at large in violation of the section is declared a nuisance and a menace to public health and safety, and the code authorizes a Deputy or Community Service Officer to return or impound it, though officers may not enter a private building or residence in pursuit of the animal without the owner's permission or exigent circumstances.

Section 105-8D(3) exempts working, herding, search-and-rescue, hunting, obedience, tracking and show dogs from being treated as unleashed while actually performing or training under their handler's control and supervision. RUNNING AT LARGE is defined in § 105-6 as being on property other than that belonging to, occupied by or controlled by the animal's owner while not under the owner's physical control or obedient to the owner's commands, and RESTRAINT is defined as keeping a companion animal under a responsible person's immediate control on a leash or lead.

Section 105-11B(1) directs Deputies and Community Service Officers to make every effort to return a stray animal to its owner when feasible, or to impound it if the owner cannot be located; community cats are not impounded for simply being at large unless they rise to a nuisance under § 105-8C(4) or are injured.