On the same July 14 night that Camillus adopted a comprehensive plan covering the next few decades of land use, the town board did something with a much shorter fuse. It repealed its dog law and replaced the whole chapter.

Local Law No. 9 of 2026 wipes out Chapter 54 of the Code of the Town of Camillus and substitutes a new Chapter 54 in its entirety. It takes effect upon filing with the New York Secretary of State.

Most residents will never read it. It governs the leash, the barking, the waste bag and the fine, which is to say it governs a good share of what neighbors actually argue about.

Here is what is in it.

### The fine ladder

The penalty section is the shortest and the one worth memorizing.

Any violation of the article is an offense punishable, upon conviction, by a maximum fine of $250. Inside that ceiling the law sets a minimum that climbs: $50 for a first offense, $100 for a second, and $150 for a third or more.

Then comes the sentence that matters more than the numbers. Each day that the violation continues shall constitute a separate violation.

A dog that barks for a week after the owner has been put on notice is not one $50 problem. It is seven of them, and the minimum on the later ones is higher.

### Who can write the ticket, and on whose word

Enforcement is not limited to the dog control officer.

The law authorizes the Dog Control Officer or the Codes Enforcement Officer of the Town of Camillus, or any police officer or peace officer, to enforce the article. All of them are authorized to issue and serve an appearance ticket.

Enforcement is triggered one of two ways. Either an officer personally observes a violation, or a written complaint is signed by the person making the complaint and filed with the officer and other appropriate authorities.

That second path is the one residents should understand. A neighbor cannot start this with a phone call. The complaint has to be written and signed. That is a real threshold, and it is also a real mechanism.

### Running at large, and the presumption that comes with it

The law makes it unlawful for an owner to permit or allow a dog to run at large in the town.

Then it adds a presumption: the fact that a dog is at large shall be presumptive evidence that the owner permitted or allowed it. The burden shifts to the owner. The dog being loose is itself the evidence.

At large is defined as standing, running, walking or otherwise roaming about without being restricted by a leash, rope, cord or chain attached to a fixed immovable object or held by a person of sufficient size, strength and ability to effectively control the dog.

There are four carve outs. A dog is not at large when it is on property owned or leased by its owner or custodian, on property owned or leased by anyone else with that person’s consent, serving as a guide dog actually leading a blind person, or accompanied by and under the control of its owner or another responsible person while actively engaged in hunting during hunting season or training for hunting, on unposted land or on posted land with the landowner’s permission.

Note what the second carve out requires. Letting a dog run on a neighbor’s field is legal only with that neighbor’s consent.

### Barking is a two step offense

The noise provision is written so that a first complaint is a warning by design.

It is unlawful for an owner to permit a dog to bark, yelp, howl, cry or emit any other unreasonable noise for a continuous period of time so that the noise causes or creates the risk of inconvenience, annoyance or alarm to the public or to others in the neighborhood, after first having had notice that the dog was making such noise and having failed to stop or prevent it, or having made such noise on a prior occasion.

The law then defines notice precisely. An owner is deemed to have received notice when advised by a town official or any police or peace officer that the dog has been making the noise, or when the owner has been previously charged with a violation of the subsection.

So the sequence is: someone complains, an official tells the owner, and only then does continued barking become the chargeable violation. And once it is chargeable, each day is separate.

### Waste, even on a leash

The waste section opens with four words that do a lot of work: even though it may be leashed.

It is unlawful for an owner to permit a dog to damage or destroy property not belonging to the owner or the person in control of the dog. It is unlawful to let a dog deposit feces on the property of another without prior approval, unless the waste is immediately removed for suitable and proper disposal. The same rule applies to public property, again unless the waste is immediately removed.

The exception is doing the obvious thing right away. Coming back later is not what the text describes.

### Licensing, and the seven free categories

Licensing starts early. The owner of any dog reaching the age of four months shall immediately apply to the Town Clerk for a license under Article 7 of the state Agriculture and Markets Law.

The actual dollar amounts are not in the local law. A fee schedule is established by resolution of the town board, is available in the office of the Town Clerk, and can be amended by resolution at any time. Fees are charged and collected before a license is issued. That structure means the price can change without another local law and without another public hearing on the code itself.

There is no license fee at all for seven categories: guide dog, hearing dog, service dog, war dog, working search dog, detection dog and police work dog. Each license copy for such a dog is conspicuously marked with the category by the Town Clerk.

The exemption has a limit that surprises people. Under Article 7 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, those same seven categories are not exempt from the state surcharge that funds the animal population control fund. The town waives its fee. The state surcharge still applies.

The law defines a detection dog broadly, as one trained and actually used, or in training, to detect controlled substances, explosives, ignitable liquids, firearms, cadavers, or school or correctional facility contraband.

### The enumeration clause

One provision is worth flagging because it is the town giving itself a tool.

An additional fee, set and amended by town board resolution, is imposed when a dog is identified as unlicensed during an enumeration period. An enumeration is a canvass, a count of dogs in the town.

The money is earmarked. That additional fee is the property of the town and is used to pay the expenses of conducting the enumeration. If the fees collected exceed what the canvass cost in a given year, the excess may be used to enforce the article.

A dog census that pays for itself, and whose surplus funds enforcement, is a specific policy choice, and it is now in the code.

### Tags, impoundment and the five day clock

Each licensed dog is assigned a permanent official identification number at first licensing, featured on a tag affixed to a collar on the dog at all times. A dog participating in a dog show is exempt during that participation. The number is permanent, follows the dog through changes of ownership, and is never reassigned to another dog during that dog’s lifetime.

The first tag is free. A replacement for a lost tag costs a fee set by the town board.

If a dog is seized, the dog control officer shall seize any dog running at large, and that seizure happens in addition to prosecution, not instead of it. Notice and the impoundment period follow section 117 of the Agriculture and Markets Law.

The owner has five business days to redeem the dog, excluding the day it was impounded. Redemption requires proof the dog is licensed and identified, payment of a fee set by board resolution, and reimbursement to the town for any veterinary or vaccination expenses it incurred.

Where the town contracts with a third party for boarding, sheltering and impound services, the owner pays that contractor directly for the shelter and impound fees and for any vet or vaccination costs the contractor incurred during the redemption period. Impoundment fees collected by the town are remitted by the Town Clerk to the Town Supervisor by the fifth of each month, the same schedule that applies to license fees.

### The authority and the review

The town enacted this under the New York State Constitution, Municipal Home Rule Law section 10, and Article 7 of the state Agriculture and Markets Law. The local chapter is explicitly written to supplement Article 7, not to replace it, and the definitions default to section 108 of that law unless the local text says otherwise.

The board held a public hearing on the proposed law on July 14 before enacting it. For environmental review, it classified the enactment as an Unlisted Action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and issued a negative declaration. The law carries a standard severability clause.

The proposal moved as Local Law No. I-2026 and was enacted as Local Law No. 9 of 2026.

### What to do about it

If you own a dog in Camillus, three things are worth doing this month.

Confirm the dog is licensed if it is over four months old, and confirm the tag is on the collar. Ask the Town Clerk for the current fee schedule rather than assuming last year’s number, because the schedule moves by resolution. And understand that the barking clause gives you one documented chance to fix the problem before the daily count starts.

Camillus Town Hall is at 4600 West Genesee Street. The July 14 minutes containing the full text of the new chapter were submitted by Town Clerk Martha Dickson-McMahon and are posted on the town website.