Burlington, NC Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

City Code § 22-71 makes it unlawful for an owner or person responsible for an animal to allow it, willfully or through a failure to exercise due care, to bark or make other noise that unreasonably disturbs or interferes with the peace of others. The section sets numeric thresholds rather than a vague nuisance standard: barking for more than fifteen minutes in any thirty-minute period between 6:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. is a violation, and the window tightens overnight, where more than five minutes of barking in any thirty-minute period between 10:00 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. crosses the line.

Either way, a duly authorized local government official, typically an animal control officer, must verify the noise before a citation issues. The rule exempts commercial pet facilities, animal welfare facilities, veterinary hospitals and grooming parlors, and it does not apply where the owner can show the barking was caused by the animal's own injury or illness or by someone else provoking, trespassing on, tormenting or abusing the animal on its own property. Officers weigh proximity to bedrooms and home offices, whether the barking is a demonstrated pattern, and whether it recurs or is intermittent, all interpreted broadly under a reasonable-person standard.

Animal control officers and police officers both enforce the section. Penalties escalate deliberately: the city issues only a warning for a first violation, a second violation within one year draws a $200 civil penalty, and a third within that year draws $350, collectible as a civil debt. A fourth violation within twelve months, or refusing to identify yourself to an officer, is a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by up to $100 or thirty days in jail under G.S. §§ 14-4 and 160A-175, and a cited owner may request a nonjudicial hearing with the city manager's designee.