Mosinee, WI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 10-51 of the Mosinee Code of Ordinances makes it unlawful to knowingly keep or harbor a dog that habitually barks, howls, or yelps, or a cat that habitually cries or howls, to the great discomfort of the peace and quiet of the neighborhood or in a manner that materially disturbs or annoys neighbors of ordinary sensibilities, and it declares such an animal a public nuisance outright. Rather than leaving the "habitual" and "disturbing" standards to an officer's judgment alone, the section sets a concrete enforcement trigger: the animal is considered in violation once two formal, written complaints are filed with the police department within a four-week period.

That two-complaint threshold means a single neighbor's phone call is not enough to establish a violation, but a documented pattern from the neighborhood is. The nuisance declaration sits in chapter 10's dogs-and-cats article alongside the broader keeping restrictions in section 10-3(a)(4), which separately lists habitual barking or howling among the reasons a dog or cat cannot be kept in the city at all, so a chronic barking complaint can support either the standalone nuisance citation under section 10-51 or enforcement under the general keeping restrictions.