Talbot County, Maryland

§ 15-8 Civil violations.

Any person who violates any provision of § 15-8 shall be guilty of a municipal infraction. Adjudication of a violation under this section is not a criminal conviction, and it does not impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily imposed by a criminal conviction.

G. A person must not tether a dog under circumstances that endanger its health, safety, or well-being, as stated below. Failure to provide relief to a dog in distress when exposed to any of the conditions listed below is proof that the dog was improperly, i.e., cruelly, tethered:

1) Leaving a dog on a tether Unattended at any time;

2) Tethering a dog between the hours of midnight — 6 a.m.;

3) Tethering of a dog during a weather emergency, or a dog -control emergency declared by the Director;

4) Using a tether that weighs more than 1/8 of the dog’s body weight;

5) Using a tether that does not have a swivel attached on each end;

6) Using a tether that is less than five (5) times the length of the dog, as measured from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail;

7) Tethering that unreasonably limits a dog’s movement;

8) Tethering under conditions where the dog or tether can become entangled on the tether or some other object;

9) Tethering that restricts a dog’s access to suitable and sufficient food, clean water, and appropriate shelter;

10) Tethering in unsafe or unsanitary conditions;
11) Tethering that does not allow a dog to defecate or urinate in an area separate from the area where it must eat, drink, or lie down; or,

12) Tethering that causes injury, stress, or demonstrable socialization problems.

H. A person shall not tether, chain, fasten, tie, or otherwise restrain a cat to a house, tree, fence, or other stationary or immobile object.

I. Exception. Nothing in this regulation prohibits:

(1) A regimen of restraint that the Director has approved for a particular training or working dog purpose; or

(2) The temporary tethering of a dog incidental to its veterinary care and/or grooming, in accordance with professionally accepted standards.