Smithtown, NY Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Town Code § 135-3 makes it unlawful for anyone owning, possessing or harboring a dog to allow it to run loose or be at large anywhere in the Town of Smithtown, whether or not the dog is licensed. The only exception is on real property the owner owns, leases or lawfully occupies as a residence, or on private land with the owner's permission, and even there the dog must be under the immediate and full control of its owner or handler and restrained on a suitably strong leash no longer than six feet.

Enforcement flows through Chapter 135's seizure and licensing provisions: § 135-6 authorizes Department of Public Safety personnel from the Animal Shelter and Adoption Center Division, or any peace or police officer, to seize any dog running at large, seize any unlicensed dog wherever found, and issue summonses to owners of seized dogs; every seized animal must be fed and cared for at Town expense until it is redeemed or otherwise disposed of. Section 135-7 lets an owner redeem a seized dog only on proof that it has been licensed, tying the at-large rule directly to the separate licensing mandate in § 135-4, which requires every dog over four months old to be licensed under Article 7 of the state Agriculture and Markets Law and this chapter, with an identification tag affixed to a collar at all times.

Section 135-10 creates evidentiary presumptions that make enforcement easier: a dog found without an identification tag is presumptively unlicensed, and the last person to license a dog is presumed its owner, while any unlicensed dog kept in a one-family home is presumed owned by every adult resident of that home.