West New York, NJ Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

Section 266-9G of the Town Code makes the property owner or tenant responsible for an animal's noise. It covers any domesticated or caged animal, so dogs, parrots and other pets all fall under it. The noise must cross a real property line and unreasonably disturb or interfere with the peace, comfort and repose of any resident. A second, separate offense is refusing or intentionally failing to stop the noise when a noise control officer or noise control investigator orders it.

The code supplies two time tests as prima facie evidence, and states the list is not limited to them. The first is vocalizing (howling, yelping, barking, squawking and so on) for five minutes without interruption, defined as an average of four or more vocalizations per minute in that period. The second is vocalizing for 20 minutes intermittently, defined as an average of two vocalizations or more per minute in that period. Subsection (2) gives an affirmative defense: the dog or other animal was intentionally provoked to bark or make the noise.

The dog chapter adds its own rule. Section 174-13B says no person shall harbor or keep any dog within the Town that habitually barks so as to disturb the peace and quiet of the persons residing in the Town. Section 174-13C lets the West New York Police Department, the Animal Control Officer or any other appropriate Town official cause a hearing in the Municipal Court of the Town of West New York to decide whether a dog habitually barks. An editor's note records that the former dog-chapter disturbing noises section, § 174-11, was repealed on 7-18-2012 and replaced by Chapter 266.

Under section 266-5, noise control investigators can enforce a vocalizing complaint without a sound-level meter, because the test is time and plain observation, not decibels. Enforcement of the dog article falls to the Animal Control Warden, the Police Department, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Code Enforcement Department and any Town employee designated by the Director of Public Works or Parks and Recreation.