Dog Poop Laws in Chittenden County: A Town-by-Town Guide
Here's something most Vermont dog owners don't realize: there is no statewide law requiring you to pick up after your dog. The state handles licensing — every dog over six months has to be registered with the town clerk by April 1 — but when it comes to scooping, leashing, and fines, Vermont hands the whole thing to towns (20 V.S.A. § 3549). So the rules genuinely change the moment you cross a town line.
We read the actual ordinance for all 18 Chittenden County municipalities. Here's how they compare.
The short version
- 16 of 18 towns require you to pick up waste — but almost always only on public property or someone else's land, not your own yard.
- Charlotte has no scoop law at all. Its 1996 animal ordinance simply doesn't mention waste. (It does ban dogs from the Town Beach.)
- Burlington's fines are the steepest by far: $200 to $500. Most towns are in the $25–$200 range.
- St. George is the strictest town-wide: you must actually carry a bag or scoop device whenever your dog is off your property — not just clean up after the fact. Williston and Hinesburg have the same carry-a-bag rule. Burlington has one too, but only inside its off-leash dog areas — see below.
- Two towns — Underhill and Huntington — keep their ordinances offline, so we couldn't verify their rules (more on that below).
The town-by-town table
| Town | Scoop law? | Voice control OK? | Waste fines (1st / 2nd / 3rd) | License (altered / intact) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burlington | Yes | No | $200–250 / $250–350 / $350–500 | $27 / $47 |
| South Burlington | Yes | Yes | $50 / $100 / $200 | ~$27 / ~$31 |
| Winooski | Yes | No | $150 / $250 / court | $9 / $13 |
| Essex Junction | Yes | No | $50 / $100 / $200 | $13 / $17 |
| Essex (town) | Yes | No | $100 / $200 / $400 | $15 / $17 |
| Colchester | Yes | Yes | $50 / $100 / $200 | $15 / $20 |
| Williston | Yes (carry a bag) | Yes | $50 / $75 / $200 | ~$11 / ~$15 |
| Shelburne | Yes | No | $25 / $50 / $75 | $16 / $20 |
| Milton | Yes | No | $25 / $50 / $100 | $11 / $15 |
| Hinesburg | Yes (carry a bag) | Yes* | $50 / $75 / $200 | $15 flat |
| Richmond | Yes | Yes | $50 / $100 / $150 | $15 flat |
| Jericho | Yes | Yes | warning / $50 / $75 | free if on time |
| Underhill | Unverified | — | — | ~$11 / ~$15 |
| Westford | Yes | Yes | $50 / $100 / $150 | $13 / $15 |
| Charlotte | No | Yes | (at-large only) | $8 / $12 |
| Huntington | Unverified | — | — | $15 flat |
| St. George | Yes (carry a bag) | No | $50 / $75 / $200 | $12 / $14 |
| Bolton | Yes | No | $25 / $50 / $75 | $11 / $15 |
*Hinesburg allows voice control except on sidewalks, trails, and bike paths, where a ≤6 ft leash is required. License dollar figures are the most recent we could confirm; the state raised fees in 2025, so check with your town clerk for the current number.
A few things worth knowing
"Pick up after your dog" usually doesn't mean your own yard. Most ordinances (Burlington's 5-17 is an exception — it covers public and private property) only require cleanup on public land or property you don't own. Your back yard is on the honor system. That doesn't mean it's harmless — uncollected waste is a real contributor to Lake Champlain's water-quality problems, especially when the spring thaw flushes a winter's worth into storm drains.
Carry a bag, or just pick it up? It's a real distinction. Most scoop laws say remove the waste — technically you comply if you sprint home for a bag and come back. Three towns — St. George, Williston, Hinesburg — say you must have the bag on you before you set out. Burlington is a fourth case, with a catch: town-wide its rule (5-17) is removal-only, but step into one of its designated off-leash dog areas and Appendix D §7(C)(7) requires you to "carry equipment for removing such feces." Same city, different rule, forty feet apart.
Leash vs. "voice control." Some towns (Colchester, Williston, Richmond, Jericho, and Hinesburg away from paths) let a well-controlled dog go off-leash under voice command. Others — Milton, Shelburne, Winooski — require a physical leash or restraint, full stop. When in doubt, leash up.
Burlington's off-leash areas are a genuine mess, and it's not your fault. The city code designates five off-leash areas (Appendix D §7) — Starr Farm, Schmanska, Oakledge, Urban Reserve and the Intervale — with rules so specific they're almost funny: Oakledge is off-leash only from October 1 to April 1, and Schmanska is essentially overnight-only. But Burlington Parks today advertises just two dog parks: Starr Farm and the Waterfront Dog Park. Why the gap? Because §7(F)(1) declared the whole thing an eighteen-month pilot program that would expire unless the city council said otherwise — and the citation line reads Res. of 4-17-00; Ord. of 9-23-02. The list in the code is a quarter-century-old pilot nobody ever rewrote. (Two other things worth knowing: the "Waterfront Dog Park" and the code's "Urban Reserve" are the same place under two names, and "Texaco Beach" — the only Burlington beach that allows dogs — already sits inside its boundary.) Whether Oakledge, Schmanska and the Intervale are still live is a question the web can't answer. Call Parks at 802-864-0123 before you count on one.
Essex is two places now. Essex Junction became its own city in 2022, so the town and the city have separate codes. Oddly, the town's fines run higher than the city's.
The two mystery towns. Underhill's website sits behind a security wall our research couldn't get past, and Huntington's 2004 ordinance simply isn't posted online anywhere. We won't guess at rules we can't read — if you live in either town, call the clerk.
Where the bags actually are
We looked for town-run pet-waste stations and mostly came up empty. Only two are documented: Richmond funds bag stations at Volunteer's Green and Brown's Court directly out of dog-license fees, and Mills Riverside Park (serving Jericho and Underhill) keeps three dispensers stocked. Everywhere else, you're expected to bring your own — which is exactly why most of these ordinances make you carry one.
Knowing the rule is the easy part; remembering the bag on every walk, and keeping the yard itself clear, is the grind. That's the part Scoop There It Is takes off your plate.
Notes & sources
- Every fine and citation traces to the town's municipal code; see the backing research file for full citations and confidence grades. Items we couldn't verify online (Underhill, Huntington) are labeled as such — not guessed.
- License fees shift with the 2025 Vermont fee increase and local surcharges; treat the figures here as a guide and confirm the current number with your town clerk.
Corrections (July 15, 2026)
We went back through the Burlington code while researching a companion piece on the county's dog parks, and found we'd gotten some things wrong. Our whole pitch is that we actually read the primary sources, so here's what we fixed:
- We said Burlington's off-leash areas come from ordinance 5-14. They don't. Section 5-14 doesn't name a single park — it just hands the power to the parks board. The real list is in Appendix D §7(A), and it names five areas, not the four we had. We'd missed Schmanska Park entirely.
- We never explained why the city's own sources contradict each other. They do, and the reason is the eighteen-month sunset clause in §7(F)(1). We've added that above — it's the most interesting thing in the whole ordinance.
- We didn't mention that Burlington requires carrying a bag in its off-leash areas (§7(C)(7)), while calling St. George the strictest. St. George is still the strictest town-wide; Burlington's rule is real but narrower. Both are now stated plainly.
- Our data file wrongly flagged Essex and Essex Junction as carry-a-bag towns. Neither ordinance contains the word "carry" — both require only immediate removal. Fixed.
Nothing here changes a fine amount or a scoop requirement. If you spot something else we've got wrong, tell us — we'd rather be corrected than quoted.
Last updated 2026-07-15