Warren, MI Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

City Code Sec. 7-74 makes it unlawful to harbor or keep a dog that, through loud and frequent yelping, habitual barking, or howling, causes a serious annoyance to neighbors. The ordinance sets an objective evidentiary threshold: evidence the dog barked or howled for an aggregate of 20 minutes within any single hour is sufficient for a conviction, removing any need to prove subjective annoyance once that duration is documented. The owner has a narrow provoked-barking defense: time can be excluded from the aggregate if the owner documents that the barking was provoked by another animal or a nearby pedestrian and could not be avoided, and the owner takes remedial steps to change the dog's environment and abate the nuisance within three months of the complaint.

If, after evaluating a nuisance report, the animal control officer determines the dog is barking or howling incessantly or continuously, the officer issues the owner a citation under Sec. 7-74. A violation is a civil infraction, not a criminal misdemeanor, but it still carries a fine of up to $500. The section was adopted as part of the comprehensive animal ordinance overhaul, Ord. No. 80-834, effective June 24, 2025, which recodified the city's animal control chapter (Chapter 7) in full.