Scranton, PA Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Article II of Chapter 169 opens with Section 169-10, Running at large prohibited, which bars any person who owns or has custody of a dog from allowing it to run at large within the City limits. Section 169-9, the general animal-control section added by Ordinance No. 49-1980, defines the standard the City enforces: AT LARGE means a dog off its owner's property and not restrained by a competent person, and RESTRAINT means control by a leash or chain not exceeding six feet in length that prevents the dog from terrorizing or attacking people using sidewalks.

Subsection B of that section makes it every police officer's or authorized agency's duty to seize and detain any dog running at large on public streets or on another person's property without the owner's restraint. Separately, Section 169-4 lets the Director of the Office of Public Health declare up to a six-month quarantine period each year during which any unlicensed, unmuzzled or uninoculated dog found running at large is deemed a public nuisance, and a police officer, on orders from the Director of Public Safety, is authorized to shoot or otherwise kill it.

A seized dog wearing a valid license tag is held at the pound and the owner is notified by mail to reclaim it within five days, paying $2 per day of detention under Section 169-14; an unlicensed dog is held three days under Section 169-15 at the same $2 daily rate before the City may sell or humanely destroy it under Section 169-16.