Skowhegan, ME Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section IV(1) of the Town of Skowhegan Animals and Fowl Ordinance is the barking rule. It prohibits any person from keeping or harboring a dog that, by frequent and habitual barking, howling or yelping, creates unreasonably loud and disturbing noises for a duration of at least 30 minutes continuously or one hour or more intermittently. The ordinance supplies two measurable thresholds, so a complaint rests on duration rather than on a single bark or a brief episode.

The ordinance also defines who counts as harboring the dog. Anyone who allows the dog to remain, be lodged or fed within any dwelling, building, yard or enclosure that the person occupies or owns is considered to be harboring it. That reaches tenants and property owners, not only the person who holds the license or bought the dog. Section II defines owner more broadly still: any person, firm, association or corporation owning, keeping, harboring or in possession of an animal, including the parent or guardian of a minor who keeps one.

The same duration test appears in the definition of PUBLIC NUISANCE in Section II. There, an owner's failure to control an animal that causes a disturbance by excessive and frequent barking or noisemaking is a nuisance when the noise is unreasonably loud and disturbing, lasts at least 30 minutes continuously or one hour or more intermittently, and occurs near the private residence or business of another or of any government or public facility. That language names neighbors, businesses and public buildings as the places where the disturbance is measured.

The ordinance was adopted July 16, 1973, amended March 8, 1999 and amended June 13, 2022. Its stated purpose is to control dogs and other domesticated animals in the interest of health, safety and general welfare. Dog excrement is handled in a separate subsection, IV(2), and animals other than dogs are handled in Section III.