Barrow County, GA Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Barrow County Code § 58-4(b)(5) reaches anyone who keeps or maintains an animal or bird that unreasonably disturbs the comfort or repose of a reasonable person with ordinary sensibilities because it emits frequent or long-continued sound. Unlike most of § 58-4's noise provisions, this one is not self-executing on a single incident: the person keeping the animal must first be notified in writing, by certified mail with return receipt requested, that the animal is unreasonably disturbing the complaining party's comfort or repose. The section is written to be liberally construed, so the notifying neighbor does not need the code's exact wording, only enough detail to inform the owner of the nature of the disturbing noise.

Once that certified letter arrives, the owner shall be required to immediately comply, and continuing to let the animal disturb the neighborhood after that notice is what completes the violation. The subsection carves out a specific exemption: it does not apply to horses, livestock, poultry or other farm animals, provided the sound comes from a legitimate farming operation on properly zoned agricultural property, which matters in a county with as much rural land as Barrow. Because this sits within § 58-4, the article's general definition of noise in § 58-4(a) and its 50-foot audibility presumption still inform how disruptive the sound has to be, even though this specific subsection's own trigger is the certified-mail notice rather than a fixed distance or clock time.