Surry County, NC Animal Ordinances: Dog Leash Laws (2026)

Surry County's Animal Control and Animal Welfare Chapter does not use the word leash, but it builds an at-large and restraint framework from two anchor provisions. Section 90.002 defines AT LARGE broadly: an animal is at large whenever it is off the property of its owner and not under the restraint of a competent person, a definition that covers dogs off a leash or fence line in public. An at-large dog is not automatically cited; enforcement attaches when the ACO determines under § 90.050 that the animal is creating a public nuisance, defined at § 90.051 to include chasing, attacking, or repeatedly harassing people, pets, or farm animals, or damaging property.

A first nuisance complaint draws a warning to restrain the dog; a second draws a written civil citation; a third results in impoundment and a misdemeanor referral. Separately, § 90.097 regulates how a dog may be restrained at home: subsection (B) bars tethering in any manner prohibited by the subchapter, and subsection (C) bars a cable-trolley tether unless the cable runs at least ten feet and the dog can move at least 15 feet perpendicular to it, with tethers limited to rope, twine, cord, or chain that does not exceed 10% of the dog's body weight, attached only to a buckle collar or body harness, never a choke or prong collar.

Section 90.098 exempts herding, agricultural, hunting, and training uses, a dog within its owner's visual range outdoors, and hand-held leash walking. Any of the municipalities within the county, Mount Airy, Elkin, Dobson, or Pilot Mountain, may instead apply its own tethering ordinance under § 90.098(I).