Bessemer, AL Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 14-56, part of Chapter 14, Article II (Dogs), targets any dog whose noise rises to a public nuisance rather than setting a fixed decibel limit or quiet-hours window. The text bars a person from confining, harboring or keeping a dog, anywhere on a place or premises in the city, that habitually, continuously or intermittently makes or emits sounds or noises of a volume that becomes obnoxious or annoying to the ordinary persons in that neighborhood. Because the standard is the reasonable-neighbor test rather than a numeric threshold, enforcement typically turns on neighbor complaints and an officer's or the rabies control officer's assessment of whether the noise pattern, habitual, continuous, or even just intermittent, is severe enough to disturb an ordinary person nearby.

The section sits next to the chapter's broader nuisance-animal language: Section 14-8, in Chapter 14's general provisions, separately declares that any animal causing frequent or long-continued noise disturbing the comfort or repose of a neighbor is a public nuisance and detrimental to public health and welfare, reinforcing that Bessemer treats chronic animal noise, not just dogs, as an enforceable nuisance rather than a private matter between neighbors. Chapter 14's enforcement, under Section 14-5, is shared by the rabies control officer and the Bessemer Police Department, and a citation follows the same five-day payment window set out in Section 14-3 before a warrant issues.