Chatham County, NC Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

001 defines PUBLIC NUISANCE to include, as prima facie evidence, any animal which habitually barks, whines, howls, or otherwise creates excessive and repetitive noise that annoys and disturbs the rights, privileges and reasonable expectations of other persons, rendering the ordinary use of their property physically or emotionally uncomfortable. 035 makes it unlawful for an owner to allow an animal to create, or to maintain, a public nuisance, and a violation is a misdemeanor. 037: when an Animal Services Officer, other law enforcement officer, or a person authorized by the Health Director personally observes the nuisance, the owner is notified and ordered to abate immediately; when a neighbor instead files an oral or written complaint, the Animal Services Division must notify the owner that a complaint was received, investigate, and prepare a written report before ordering abatement if it finds a nuisance in fact exists.

038 then makes it a separate misdemeanor to fail or refuse to abate the nuisance once ordered, and each day the barking continues after that order counts as its own violation. The rule sits in the cruelty and nuisance subchapter of Chapter 91, so it is enforced by the Animal Services Division and Health Director rather than left to a private civil suit between neighbors, though a neighbor's complaint is what typically starts the process.