Dangerous-Dog Hearings and Procedures: A Guide for Local Governments

This is a guide for local government officials and state employees on how to develop and administer a process for determining when a dog fits North Carolina’s legal definition of a potentially dangerous dog. State law requires local governments to adopt certain measures for making dangerous-dog determinations and requires a process for hearing owners’ appeals. The law provides few guidelines for implementing those requirements, giving local governments a lot of flexibility but little direction.