Chapter 140

Section 150. Persons authorized or directed by section 4 of chapter 51 or by a special law, to make lists of residents 3 years of age or older shall make a list of all dogs owned by the inhabitants at the time of making such lists and shall annually return the same, in duplicate,…

Section 151. (a) The mayor of each city and the board of selectmen of each town shall annually designate an animal control officer, who may be a police officer or constable. The mayor or board of selectmen shall immediately submit to the commissioner the names, addresses and date…

Section 151A. (a) The mayor or board of selectmen, as the case may be, shall annually issue a warrant to the animal control officer directing the officer to seek out, catch and confine all dogs within the city or town which are not licensed, collared or harnessed, or tagged, as r…

Section 151B. A veterinarian registered under section 55 or 56A of chapter 112 who renders emergency care or treatment to, or who euthanizes, a dog or cat that is injured on any way shall receive payment from the owner of such dog or cat, if known, or, if not known, from the city…

Section 151C. The commissioner shall, from time to time and subject to the availability of funds from the Homeless Animal Prevention and Care Fund in section 35WW of chapter 10, provide for a training course for animal control officers. For a training course established under thi…

Section 152. Each police officer, constable or animal control officer to whom such warrant is issued shall make returns, on or before October first, on or before January first, and on or before April first, in each year, and at the expiration of his term of office, to the mayor o…

Section 153. In the several cities and towns of the several counties, such warrant may be in the following form:— COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS (Seal) To , ss. To <\/y>, constable of the city (or town) of In the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby required t…

Section 155. If any dog shall do any damage to either the body or property of any person, the owner or keeper, or if the owner or keeper be a minor, the parent or guardian of such minor, shall be liable for such damage, unless such damage shall have been occasioned to the body or…

Section 155A. If an action is brought against a law enforcement officer because of damage caused by a dog which said officer was caring for or maintaining in connection with his official duties, the commonwealth or the political subdivision employing said officer shall indemnify …

Section 156. Any person may kill a dog which suddenly assaults him while he is peaceably standing, walking or riding outside the enclosure of its owner or keeper; and any person may kill a dog found out of the enclosure of its owner or keeper and not under his immediate care in t…

Section 157. (a) Any person may file a complaint in writing to the hearing authority that a dog owned or kept in the city or town is a nuisance dog or a dangerous dog; provided, however, that no dog shall be deemed dangerous: (i) solely based upon growling or barking or solely gr…

Section 157A. (a) An owner or keeper of a dog who fails to comply with an order of a hearing authority or district court shall be punished, for a first offense, by a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than 60 days in a jail or house of correction, or both, an…

Section 158. A police officer, constable or animal control officer may capture, detain or, in the case of a threat to public safety, euthanize a dog in a humane manner if found to be in violation of an order of a hearing authority or a district court and may euthanize a dog, in a…

Section 159. If a hearing authority or a district court has deemed a dog to be a dangerous dog and such dog wounds a person or worries, wounds or kills any livestock or fowl, the owner or keeper of the dog shall be liable in tort to the person injured by the dog for 3 times the a…

Section 16. If, within three years after such sale, the owner of any such property claims it and proves his ownership thereof, the said proceeds, after deducting all reasonable charges and expenses, shall be paid over to him by the state treasurer.

Section 160. The mayor of a city, the selectmen of a town, or their agents who are authorized in writing, to act in such mayor or selectmen's stead may, after written notice to the owner or keeper of a dog, enter upon the premises of the owner or keeper known to such persons to h…

Section 161. Whoever suffers loss by the worrying, maiming or killing of such person's livestock or fowl by a dog outside the premises of the owner or keeper of the dog, may, if the damage is done in a city, inform the animal control officer and may, if the damage is done in a to…

Section 161A. No owner of live stock or fowls shall be reimbursed for damages inflicted by his own dog or dogs, nor shall he be reimbursed for any damage by any dog if, at the time such damage was inflicted, he was himself the owner or keeper of an unlicensed dog of the age of th…

Section 163. If the mayor, aldermen or board of selectmen determines, after notice to parties interested and a hearing, the identity of the owner or keeper of a dog which is found to have worried, maimed or killed livestock or fowl, thereby causing damages for which the owner of …

Section 164. A person who owns or keeps a dog and who has received such notice under section 163 and does not, within 24 hours, euthanize the dog or thereafter keep it on the owner's or keeper's premises or under the immediate restraint and control of some person, shall be punish…

Section 165. A city or town may investigate any case of damage done by a dog of which the chair of the board of selectmen, mayor or animal control officer shall have been informed as provided in section 161. If the chair, mayor or animal control officer believes that the evidence…

Section 166. The owner of live stock or fowls which have been worried, maimed or killed by dogs shall have his election to proceed under section one hundred and sixty-one or sections one hundred and fifty-seven to the hundred and fifty-nine, inclusive; but, having signified his e…

Section 167. The mayor, aldermen or board of selectmen may order that all dogs shall be restrained from running at large during such times as shall be prescribed by the order. Once passed, a certified copy of the order shall be posted in at least 2 public places in the city or to…

Section 168. The aldermen, board of selectmen or mayor may cause service of such order to be made upon the owner or keeper of the dog by causing a certified copy thereof to be delivered to him; and if he refuses or neglects for twelve hours thereafter to muzzle or restrain such d…

Section 169. A city or town officer who refuses or willfully neglects to perform the duties imposed upon the officer by this chapter relating to dogs shall be punished by a fine of not less than $100, which shall be paid to the city or town. Whoever is aggrieved by such refusal o…

Section 17. An innholder against whom a claim is made for loss sustained by a guest may show that such loss is attributable to the negligence of the guest or to his failure to comply with the regulations of the inn, if they are reasonable and proper and are shown to have been dul…

Section 171. The owner or keeper of a dog which has done damage to livestock or fowl shall be liable in tort to the city or town for all damages so done which the mayor, aldermen or board of selectmen have ordered to be paid as provided in this chapter.

Section 173. A city or town may make additional ordinances or by-laws relative to the licensing and control of animals not inconsistent with sections 136A to 174F, inclusive.

Section 173A. Whenever a complaint is sought in a district court for a violation of an ordinance or by-law, made under the provisions of section one hundred and seventy-three, the clerk shall send a written notice to the person complained against stating that such a complaint has…

Section 174. All fines and penalties provided in the preceding sections relating to dogs may be recovered before a district court in the county where the offence was committed.

Section 174A. A dog or cat whose killing is authorized under this chapter shall be euthanized only by the administration of barbiturates in a manner deemed acceptable by the American Veterinary Medical Association Guidelines on Euthanasia or as otherwise allowed in section 151A.

Section 174B. Whoever is the owner or keeper of a dog shall restrain said dog by a chain or leash when in an officially designated public highway rest area. Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100.

Section 174D. (a) No research institution shall employ dogs or cats in scientific investigation, experiment or instruction or for the testing of drugs or medicines without having first been issued a license therefor under this section by the commissioner of public health. A resea…

Section 174E. (a) No person owning or keeping a dog shall chain or tether a dog for longer than 5 hours in a 24–hour period and outside from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., unless the tethering is for not more than 15 minutes and the dog is not left unattended by the owner, guardian or …

Section 174F. (a) A person shall not confine an animal in a motor vehicle in a manner that could reasonably be expected to threaten the health of the animal due to exposure to extreme heat or cold. (b) After making reasonable efforts to locate a motor vehicle's owner, an animal c…

Section 174G. (a) The department shall promulgate rules and regulations for commercial boarding or training kennels, including those located at a private residence, which may include, but not be limited to, licensing, inspection, compliance and enforcement, use of best practices …

Section 174H. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Board'', the board of registration in veterinary medicine. ''Cat'', an animal of the taxonomic family Felidae. ''Declawing …

Section 176. The owner or keeper of a stallion for breeding purposes shall, before advertising the service thereof, file a certificate of the name, color, age, size and pedigree, as fully as obtainable, of said stallion, and of the name of the person by whom he was bred, with the…

Section 177. The licensing board of Boston, the license commission of Lowell, the aldermen of any other city, and the selectmen of any town may grant and may suspend or revoke at pleasure a license which shall be subject to sections two hundred and two to two hundred and five, in…

Section 177A. (1) The licensing authorities of any city or town may grant, and after written notice to the licensee, suspend or revoke a license to keep and operate an automatic amusement device for hire, gain or reward, approved by the director of standards and necessaries of li…

Section 178. Whoever without such license keeps or suffers to be kept in a house, building, yard or dependency thereof, actually occupied or owned by him, a table for the purpose of playing at billiards, pool or sippio, or a bowling alley or an automatic amusement device for hire…

Section 179. The keeper of a billiard, pool or sippio room or table, or place in which pictures are displayed upon the deposit of money in a coin controlled apparatus, who admits a minor under the age of eighteen thereto without the written consent of his parent or guardian, or t…

Section 18. Every innholder and common victualler shall at all times have a board or sign affixed to his house, shop, cellar or store, or in a conspicuous place near the same, with his name legibly inscribed thereon in large letters and the business for which he is licensed inscr…

Section 180. Whoever erects, occupies or uses a building for bowling alleys, except in such part of a town as the aldermen or selectmen order, shall forfeit not more than fifty dollars for every month he so occupies or uses such building, and in like proportion for a shorter time…

Section 180A. The following words, as used in this section and in sections one hundred and eighty B to one hundred and eighty F, inclusive, shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the following meanings:— ''Theatrical engagement'', any engagement or employment of a per…

Section 180B. No person shall act as a booking agent, personal agent or actor's manager, or engage, directly or indirectly, in the business of acting as an agent in the employment of persons for a theatrical engagement in the commonwealth unless he has obtained a license from the…

Section 180C. Any person wishing to obtain such a license shall apply in writing to the commissioner of the division of occupational licensure and in the form prescribed by said commissioner; and shall state, under the penalties of perjury, his name and address; the name under wh…

Section 180D. Every licensee who shall procure for, or offer to an actor, performer or entertainer, hereafter referred to as a client, a theatrical engagement, shall execute in triplicate a contract containing the name and address of the client; the name and address of the employ…

Section 180E. No license under section one hundred and eighty B shall be issued unless and until the applicant therefor deposits with the commissioner a bond for the faithful compliance by such applicant, as licensee, during the term of the license, with the provisions of section…

Section 180F. Any person from whom any licensee under section one hundred and eighty B has withheld any sum in excess of the amount permitted under any agreement between the licensee and such person may, without expense to the commonwealth, bring an action in the name of the stat…