(A) Any dog found running at large may be seized by the Health Officer or any police officer and placed in a pound provided or designated by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. If said dog is wearing a tag, the owner shall be notified in person, by telephone or by a postcard addressed to his or her last-known mailing address, to appear within five days and redeem his or her dog by paying a reasonable pound fee, to be fixed by the pound keeper, or the dog will be humanely destroyed or sold. If said dog is not wearing a tag, it shall be humanely destroyed or sold unless legally claimed by the owner within two days. No dog shall be released in any event from the pound unless or until such dog has been vaccinated and a tag placed on its collar.
(B) When, because of its viciousness or apparent infection with rabies, a dog found running at large cannot be safely impounded it may be summarily destroyed by the Health Officer or any police officer.
(2011 Code, § 10-207)
Statutory reference:
For a Tennessee Supreme Court case upholding the summary destruction of dogs pursuant to appropriate legislation, see Darnell v. Shapard, 156 Tenn. 544, 3 S.W.2d 661 (1928)