Pets & Animals
834 Beaufort St NE • Aiken, SC 29801 • 803-642-7620

Viscous Animals

Do not contact (touch) injured or unknown animals in any fashion. A bite from an animal may require immediate medical treatment for the injury or rabies. Immediately call Animal Control.
The city defines a vicious animal as:

  • With a propensity, tendency, or disposition to attack unprovoked, to cause injury, or to otherwise endanger the safety of human beings or domestic animals.
  • That attacks a human being or domestic animals without provocation.
  • That is owned or harbored primarily or in part for the purpose of fighting or that is trained for fighting.
  • Whose behavior, temperament, constitutes a risk of injury to a person or another animal.
  • Evidencing an abnormal inclination to attack persons or other animals.

If you are aware of such an animal that meets any of the criteria above within the city limits we urge you to contact us immediately. For those outside the city limits please call the Aiken County Animal Control office.

It is illegal for the owner of a vicious animal to permit the animal to leave a securely enclosed and confined area located on the owner’s premises, unless the animal is securely muzzled and leashed or securely enclosed and confined in a cage or similar container so that it may be controlled by the owner. When a person has an animal that is vicious, it shall be unlawful for that person to fail to report the animal to an animal control officer, or city public safety officer. Any person convicted of an offense under section Sec. 8-4. of the municipal code shall have the animal spayed or neutered by a date specified by the presiding judge and, in the discretion of the court, forfeit all right, title, and interest in the animal, and an animal control officer, upon order of the court specifying a date for compliance, shall euthanize the animal or have the animal euthanized. Guard dogs owned and used exclusively by licensed security services or dogs used by law enforcement agencies are omitted.