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City of Fredericksburg, VA
 
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Code
New Laws (3) Index Notes (1)
[Code 1991, § 4-70]
A. 
All dogs and cats shall be deemed personal property and may be the subject of larceny and malicious or unlawful trespass. Owners may maintain any action for the killing of any such animals, or injury thereto, or unlawful detention or use thereof, as in the case of other personal property. The owner of any dog or cat which is injured or killed contrary to the provisions of this chapter by any person shall be entitled to recover the value thereof or the damage done thereto in an appropriate action at law from such person.
B. 
An animal control officer or other officer finding a stolen dog or cat, or a dog or cat held or detained contrary to law, shall have authority to seize and hold such animal pending action before a general district court or other court. If no warrant or other action is instituted within seven days, the animal control officer or other officer shall deliver the dog or cat to its owner.
C. 
The presence of a dog or cat on the premises of a person other than its legal owner shall raise no presumption of theft against the owner, and the animal control officer may take such animal in charge and notify its legal owner to remove it. The legal owner of the animal shall pay a charge, as set forth in the City Council's adopted schedule of fees for the animal shelter, for the keep of such animal while in the possession of the animal control officer.
[Code 1991, § 4-71; Ord. No. 06-27, 9-12-2006]
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to bring into or keep within the City any dangerous or wild or exotic animal. Upon conviction, the court shall order the animal from the City or euthanized in accordance with Code of Virginia § 3.2-6562.
B. 
For purposes of this section, the term "dangerous animal" shall mean any animal, except for a dog, which:
(1) 
Is capable of inflicting deadly or serious bodily harm on any person; and
(2) 
Has killed or seriously injured a companion animal or has chased, confronted, or approached a person in a menacing fashion such as would put a reasonable person in fear of death or serious bodily harm.
C. 
For purposes of this section, the term "wild or exotic animal" shall mean any live monkey, raccoon, skunk, wolf, wolf hybrid, squirrel, fox, prairie dog, hedgehog, leopard, panther, tiger, lion, lynx or other similar warm-blooded animal susceptible to rabies, any venomous reptile, non-poisonous reptile six feet or longer in length, or amphibian which can normally be found in the wild state. Ferrets, birds which are purchased through pet stores, nonpoisonous reptiles less than six feet in length, domestic rabbits and domestic rodents which have been bred in captivity and which never have known the wild shall be excluded from this definition.
D. 
This section shall not apply to animals kept or enclosed in the City as part of a duly licensed and lawfully operated circus, carnival, zoo or similar business.
[Code 1991, § 4-72]
It shall be unlawful to keep or maintain livestock within the City. This section, however, shall not apply to any livestock kept or maintained:
A. 
As part of a bona fide farming operation existing on or before September 26,1989;
B. 
By any person who had obtained a permit to keep such animals from the Director of the City Health Department on or before September 26, 1989; or
C. 
As part of a duly licensed and lawfully operated livestock auction, slaughterhouse, circus, carnival, zoo, or similar business.
[Code 1991, § 4-73; Ord. No. 12-20, 9-11-2012; Ord. No. 12-21, 9-11-2012]
A. 
Except as provided in Article IX, it shall be unlawful to keep or permit to run-at-large any domestic fowl, pigeons, or bees or any like animal within the City limits. This section shall not prohibit the transportation of such animals through the City or containing such animals within the property boundaries of any duly licensed and lawfully operated livestock auction, slaughterhouse, circus, carnival, zoo, or similar business.
B. 
This section shall not prohibit the continuance of any bona fide farming operation existing as of January 1, 1955, and located on farms lying within that portion of the City annexed by order of the annexation court dated October 30, 1954.
[Code 1991, § 4-74; amended 6-14-2022 by Ord. No. 22-11]
No person shall own or operate a dog kennel within the City except as permitted under Chapter 72, Unified Development Ordinance.
[Code 1991, § 4-75]
It shall be unlawful for any person to bring into the City or possess in the City any animal suffering from a contagious or infectious disease. When any animal dies of any contagious or infectious disease within the corporate limits of the City, the owner or custodian thereof shall forthwith notify a licensed veterinarian or the Director of the City Health Department for a diagnostic evaluation of the animal's cause of death and the classification of the contagious or infectious disease. The owner or custodian of such animal shall at once cause such animal to be removed and delivered to a site approved by the City and the carcass disposed of in conformance with state and local health laws. Should the owner or custodian fail to deliver or cause to be delivered the carcass to an approved disposal site, the animal control officer shall cause the carcass to be removed to the disposal site. The owner shall pay all expenses incurred therein.