A Dog The County Calls Dangerous
RCW 16.08.080 — notice, a meeting within fifteen days, twenty days to appeal, and a certificate of registration
Dangerous, and potentially dangerous. A dangerous dog inflicts severe injury on a person without provocation, kills a domestic animal without provocation off the owner's property, or was found potentially dangerous for injuring a person and again aggressively bites, attacks or endangers people. Severe injury means broken bones or disfiguring lacerations requiring multiple sutures or cosmetic surgery.
Notice, and a meeting. Where a local authority has no procedure of its own, it serves notice on the owner stating the basis, the reasons, the controls that would apply and how to appeal. Before a final determination, the owner may meet with the authority within fifteen calendar days and give reasons why the dog should not be declared dangerous, and the authority issues a written order within fifteen calendar days after.
The appeal. Where the jurisdiction has no administrative appeal, the owner may appeal a city's determination to the municipal court, or a county's to the district court, within twenty days of receiving it. Meanwhile the dog may be ordered confined, and if it is found dangerous the owner pays the costs.
The certificate. It is unlawful to have a dangerous dog without a certificate of registration, issued on proof of a proper enclosure and posted warning signs, and a surety bond or liability insurance of at least two hundred fifty thousand dollars for injuries the dog inflicts.
Cities and counties often add their own dangerous dog rules on top of these, and those are not on this page. What a particular designation means for a particular dog is a question for a licensed Washington attorney.
Sources for this section (2)
- RCW 16.08.070 — Dangerous dogs and related definitions
- RCW 16.08.080 — Dangerous dogs; notice to owners; right of appeal; certificate of registration required
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Washington attorney.