West Des Moines, IA Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 5-3-22 of the West Des Moines City Code lists the acts that make an animal's owner subject to penalty, and the second item on that list is causing annoyance or disturbance to any person through frequent and habitual barking, howling, yelping, hissing, meowing or fighting. The section sits inside Chapter 3 of Title 5, Health and Safety Regulations, the same chapter that requires an owner to physically restrain an animal on a leash or within an enclosure whenever it is left unattended outside, so a dog that barks incessantly while loose in a yard can trigger both the noise violation and the restraint violation at once.

Enforcement runs through the West Des Moines Police Department and the City's animal control officers, who work under the City's contract with the Animal Rescue League. Section 5-3-23 gives police officers, animal control officers and the Police Chief's designees discretion to charge a Chapter 3 violation, including the barking provision, as either a simple misdemeanor prosecuted in court or a municipal infraction resolved through a civil penalty. Because the barking section carries no infraction-specific dollar figure of its own, a municipal infraction charge falls back on the general penalty schedule in Title 1, Chapter 4: a civil penalty of up to $750.00 for a first violation, rising to as much as $1,000.00 for a repeat offense under Section 1-4-1.

The City may also weigh repeated Chapter 3 violations, including barking complaints, when it later reviews an owner's dog or cat license under Article A of the same chapter.