justalayman
Senior Member
Yes you arePerhaps I am missing something but, based strictly on what was written in the original post, it sounds as if the dog was in a gated yard. It does not appear that animal control entered the house at all.
If animal control did not enter the house, they did not need a warrant to seize the dog. Animal control is allowed to enter onto private property, for a whole host of different reasons. They just cannot enter into any closed building (garage, shed, house) without a warrant.
According to Oliver v. United States (1984), the Fourth Amendment protects homes and the “land immediately surrounding and associated” with homes, known as curtilage, from unreasonable government intrusions. Probable cause is the appropriate standard for searches of the curtilage and warrantless searches of curtilage is unreasonable. The knock-and-talk exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement allows an officer, without a warrant, to approach a home and knock on the door, just as any ordinary citizen could do. An officer may bypass the front door when circumstances reasonably indicate the officer might find the homeowner elsewhere on the property. The right to knock and talk does not entail a right to conduct a general investigation on a home’s curtilage.