Union County, NJ Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Laws of Union County § 115-9 sets the county's dog rules for parks, playgrounds, and other property the county owns or controls. Subsection C is the leash mandate: every dog must be restrained by a leash no longer than six feet, and it must wear a collar bearing the license tag issued by the municipality where its owner resides. Subsection B bars letting a dog run at large or free; any dog found at large on county property may be seized and disposed of under whatever law or ordinance governs stray animals, which in New Jersey typically routes the animal to the municipality's contracted animal control provider.

Subsection A requires owners to prevent a dog from soiling or defecating on any thoroughfare, sidewalk, passageway, play area, park, or place where people gather, and if a dog does defecate, the owner must immediately remove the waste by a sanitary method and dispose of it sanitarily; there is no minimum bag or scoop requirement specified, only the duty to clean up right away. B applies to every property, building, facility, park, parkway, and playground the County of Union owns, leases, maintains, or controls. They do not set a general leash law for Union County's twenty-one municipalities; each town, including Elizabeth, Westfield, and Union Township, sets its own leash and pickup rules for streets and private property outside county parks.