(1) No person shall knowingly allow, except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, an animal to defecate on a public street or byway of the town or public land or buildings, or private property, without permission of the landowner.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to guide dogs. For the purpose of this section, “guide dog” means any animal serving a blind person in an auxiliary ocular (eye) capacity.

(3) If an animal shall relieve itself as contemplated in subsection (1) of this section, the owner of the animal is not in violation of this section if that owner immediately removes any solid evidence of such relief to a waste container, or shall otherwise dispose of such evidence of relief in a manner inoffensive to reasonable public sensibilities. [Added during 2020 recodification.]