Minneapolis orders all dogs to be leashed after increase in dog bites

Minneapolis Animal Care and Control has been seeing a significant increase in dog bites, and now the city of Minneapolis says all dogs must be on a leash outdoors or contained on your property per city ordinance.

The city said the rule is to keep people safe from injuries and from COVID-19 exposure.

According to Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, in March 2019, they saw 25 reports of bites or aggression. In March 2020, that rose to 45 incidents, an 80% increase from last year.

In March 2019, 28% of bites were uncontrolled. In March 2020, 53% of bites have been uncontrolled, meaning the dogs were not contained on a property or were running at large off-leash when the bite or aggressive incident occurred.