Kenton County, KY Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Kenton County Code of Ordinances § 90.01 defines PUBLIC NUISANCE to include any animal that 'makes noise in an excessive, continuous or untimely manner for more than 15 minutes without provocation,' alongside animals that molest passers-by, attack, damage property, or are repeatedly at large. Section 90.15(C) then makes it unlawful for any person to own or possess an animal that conducts itself in a manner that constitutes a public nuisance, folding the 15-minute noise standard into an enforceable prohibition rather than leaving it as a definition only.

Enforcement follows the general procedure at § 90.10(K) and (L): an Animal Control Officer's first contact for a public nuisance is typically a warning citation, but unlike other violations that allow 14 days to correct, the code specifically carves out public nuisance and running-at-large violations for immediate correction, meaning the barking must stop right away rather than over the following two weeks. If the officer instead issues a civil citation, the schedule under § 90.10(L)(1) runs $30 for a first citation, $55 for a second citation within 12 months, and $85 for a third, with a fourth or subsequent offense treated as habitual and pushed into the uniform criminal citation track instead of the civil-fee track. Under the separate penalty table at § 90.99(A)(8), a public-nuisance conviction under § 90.15(C) carries a fine of $25 to $100 for a first offense and $50 to $250 for a second or later offense, with each day of the ongoing nuisance treated as a new violation.

This chapter has no separate quiet-hours ordinance; the 15-minute unprovoked-noise threshold in § 90.01 is the county's only codified noise standard for animals, and it applies only to the unincorporated county Chapter 90 covers.