Gulfport, Mississippi

Sec. 7-123. – Condition of premises where dogs kept or confined; penalties.

(a) Dogs within the city limits and while on the property of their owner, custodian or temporary caretaker, shall be restrained and confined only in the manners authorized in this section. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit walking a dog with the use of a hand-held leash.

(1) Any person who owns or has custody or control of a dog shall not restrain such dog by means of a tethering device attached to a fixed point. Dogs may be tethered using a running cable trolley system for periods of no more than four (4) hours in any twenty-four-hour period provided that the running cable trolley system is a suspended cable of at least ten (10) feet in length which is attached to the tether by means of a pulley, loop or other moveable device. All tethering devices shall be attached to the dog in such a manner as to prevent injury or strangulation to the dog and entanglement with other objects and shall not be attached to the dog by means of a choke-type collar or a prong collar, or by means other than a properly fitted collar, harness or other device made expressly for such purpose.

(b) Dogs tethered or confined under the provisions of this section must be allowed access to fresh water and food sufficient for the good health of such dog. Adequate ventilation must be provided as well as shelter and shade (artificial or natural) when prevailing weather conditions, including but not limited to, extreme heat and sunlight, extreme cold, rain or other extreme weather so require and if tethered must be tethered such that the dog does not extend beyond the property of the owner, custodian or caretaker onto either public property or property owned by another. No dog shall be tethered, confined or kept in such place or condition as to become a nuisance, either because of noise, odor, filth, or contagion of disease.

(c) Any person who knowingly violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a violation, punishable by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a first offense, and a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) nor more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) each second or subsequent offenses. Beginning seventy-two (72) hours after a charge of violating this section, each day that a defendant fails to correct the deficiencies in the method used to restrain or confine a dog that he or she owns or that is in his or her custody or control, so as to bring it into compliance with the provisions of this section, shall constitute a separate offense.