Macon County, IL Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

10(A) makes it unlawful for anyone owning, possessing or harboring an animal in the unincorporated county to let it become a nuisance. The section defines nuisance to include four categories of conduct: substantially damaging property other than the owner's, causing a disturbance by excessive barking, caterwauling or noisemaking, chasing or attacking a person on the owner's premises in a subdivided residential area, and chasing or attacking another domestic animal off the owner's premises. A dog trained for law enforcement, while performing its duties, is excluded from the nuisance definition entirely.

10(B) gives the animal shelter administrator or a delegate authority to impound an animal creating a nuisance, but only for the third and fourth categories, chasing or attacking a person or another animal, and only when the animal is not restrained by a competent person; the ordinance does not authorize impoundment specifically for the barking or noisemaking category. A barking complaint is instead handled through Chapter 96's general nuisance-animal citation, since Chapter 94's noise-nuisance framework governs mechanical and amplified noise sources, not animals. Enforcement of the nuisance-animal provision runs through Macon County Animal Control.