Dog Limits

[Caerus]

I know this an old thread, but something just occurred to me. I believe we have a 3 or 4 pet limit in my town, and no registration (just have to wear rabies tags). We have 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 young tortoises, 2 mice, 2 gerbils, and 3 rats.

 

Whenever I foster for the local shelter, I'm supposed to fill out a paper which includes all of my current pets. I've been filling it out truthfully for some time now, but since the shelter is run by Animal Control, I wonder if I should only list the dogs? They've never turned me down for fostering, and I adopted one of the cats and a mouse there.

 

Do you think there is a risk there, or is it not worth worrying about because shelter staff don't care? I don't like having it on record with an organization run by our ACOs that I'm over the limit. Never occurred to me that it might be a problem before.

 

And I have to add that my own dad can't tell apart black and white BCs. At the moment we have no fosters, and our permanent dogs are B&W classically marked and R&W. Whenever we foster a B&W he either can't tell them apart or thinks that the usually smaller foster looks like my dog's puppy. It's hilarious.

[Jumpin Boots]

We are out of city limits and don't have restrictions on pets, wish some people did though

 

But of the three major towns around us, who all have limits, the limit only applies to cats and dogs(they also have restrictions on farm animals), not pocket or tropical pets. If you look up your local cities website ordinance you should be able to find the limits pretty easily.

[Laurelin]

Wow, since I wrote this, we've gained two dogs. We have 6 now and still no border collie.

 

Well I guess one and a half dogs. The lab only lives with us part time.

[diane allen]

Caerus (?), we too have a 3 animal limit. Our ACOs are so supportive of fosterers, that they have said (off the record of course...) that they will definitely NOT pursue anyone with "too many" animals, if they are fostering. Even though some of those fostered animals have been there a long time, they consider them "temporary," unless there's a complaint. Most complaints come to those who have one very neglected animal (who is either not well taken care of, or is chained outside and barking constantly....). Our fosters are "recorded" thru the Humane Society, who works closely with ACO and the shelter, but I don't think anyone here would worry about "too many." I wish you the same luck there!

 

diane

[geonni banner]

I have had the same experience with rescue/foster dogs. Our Animal Control people tended to "look the other way" when it came to rescue dogs. They tended to take my word for it if I said a dog was a rescue. Legally they were "my dogs," but AC knew me - I was in and out of the shelter pretty regularly to bail out collies, and they had my handouts for potential adopters. So maybe that had an effect on their treatment of me.

 

I have heard of people being grandfathered in too, if you can show proof that you have had the dogs since before the limit law came into effect.

[mum24dog]

I was just wondering why people accept such restrictions on their freedom. I can feel myself getting rebellious just reading this thread.

A limit on the number of pets allowed is pretty alien to us here in the UK.

I believe some local councils may have a nominal local restriction of 6 dogs but usually would only take action if someone complained about noise or a health hazard. We don't have dog licensing.

If you live in the country noone cares anyway.

The key to having a multi dog household is good and understanding neighbours - and our neighbours are often very close indeed.

 

Pam

[border_collie_crazy]

no limit here thankfully, we looked into it after several people kept trying to tell us we were in violation of the city limit when they found out how may dogs we have..we can now rebut with confidence there there is in fact no city limit lol.

 

that said, I ignore our by-law that requires dogs be licenced, the city has talked about limits and bans before, and frankly I have no intention of telling the city how many of what type and size of dogs I have and I have no intention of paying the city every year for the priviledge of owning my own dogs. if that money is going to help the shelter..great. but I donate to the shelter every year anyway.

[geonni banner]

I was just wondering why people accept such restrictions on their freedom. I can feel myself getting rebellious just reading this thread.

A limit on the number of pets allowed is pretty alien to us here in the UK.

I believe some local councils may have a nominal local restriction of 6 dogs but usually would only take action if someone complained about noise or a health hazard. We don't have dog licensing.

If you live in the country noone cares anyway.

The key to having a multi dog household is good and understanding neighbours - and our neighbours are often very close indeed.

 

Pam

 

While I agree that no one should have the right to tell me how many dogs I should have if they are cared for properly, we in the Colonies have something you don't - rabies. I believe that the original purpose of dog licensing was to make sure dogs were vaccinated against rabies. Ironically, most of the unlicensed dogs I know live in the country where they are at greater risk for being exposed - but then again, I don't know anyone who does not vaccinate against rabies. I get them for my cat too, even though he can't go anywhere except my apartment and tiny, fenced back garden.

 

Dog license fees are ridiculously high in most places. I don't think they should be able to charge more than it costs to keep the records. The money generally goes into the city or county's general fund, and so does nothing for my dog or me as a dog owner. I once got ticketed for running my dog off-lead on property that belongs to the railroad in our area. I was walking a new pup on leash and a 6 year old Collie which I was playing fetch with. The Animal Control truck, actually there were three of them, jumped the curb and surrounded me. I called the Collie and put him in a down-stay and waited. One officer got out and asked to see the dogs' licenses. My Collie's had lapsed - the license ran out before the rabies shot expired - and I hadn't yet got one for the pup, which was 6 mos. old. I got three tickets - one for "Dog at Large," and two for unlicensed dogs. Total damage - (ka-ching!) $380.00.

 

I went straight to the dog pound that same day, before the truck could get back to the pound and file the paperwork. That saved me $50.00 on late license fees, and licensed them both. I asked for a hearing to contest the off-leash ticket, as I was on privately owned property when ticketed. At the hearing I told the judge I was on disability and could not afford the tickets. I showed him the new licenses and he reduced the fines from $380.00 to $35.00.

 

The kicker of the whole deal was that while the Animal Control officer was busily writing all my tickets he paused and looked at my Collie lying calmly at my feet and said, "He certainly is a well-behaved

dog." I wanted to smack him... There had been a pit-bull biting incident in an area adjacent to my neighborhood a couple of weeks before, and the dog had not been recovered. So naturally there were three AC trucks prowling my quiet neighborhood ticketing Golden Retrievers and Collies. They didn't want to go into the rough neighborhood where the dog they were supposed to be searching for was lurking. Heck no! Those folks have guns. (and more crabby pit-bulls.) Ironically there are tons of pit-bulls in my neighborhood too, and they are some of the best socialized and most well-behaved dogs you could hope to meet.

 

Ok, OT rant finished!

[Maralynn]

I was just wondering why people accept such restrictions on their freedom. I can feel myself getting rebellious just reading this thread.

A limit on the number of pets allowed is pretty alien to us here in the UK.

I believe some local councils may have a nominal local restriction of 6 dogs but usually would only take action if someone complained about noise or a health hazard. We don't have dog licensing.

If you live in the country noone cares anyway.

The key to having a multi dog household is good and understanding neighbours - and our neighbours are often very close indeed.

 

Pam

 

Licensing is tied to rabies vaccination here - it's the law that all dog be vaccinated as rabies and they need to be vaccinated to get a license. Where I live it's no biggie. It's like $12 for a 3 year license for a s/n dog or $25 for an intact one. The only time it is really enforced is with animals running free or those who have become a nuisance to others.

 

Even without licensing or dog limits, the UK does have other laws regarding animals that I'd have an issue living with.

[border_collie_crazy]

then its like here.. Rabies is NOT a require vaccine and the licence has nothing to do with vaccines, they just expect you to hand over all your info plus $25 for a s/n or show dog $60 for an intact dog and do it every year. what do you get in return? 1 "get out of jail free" card.. if you let your dog run loose and he winds up checked into the shelter(something the shelter preferes to make a point of avoiding) then you give then the card and they will not charge you a dime to give you your dog back. heres the kicker...if you dog has any ID on them at all..our AC doesnt even check them into the shelter, they just give you a call and drop off your dog on their way by..if someone else picks your dog up, then AC encourages them NOT to bring the dog to shelter if at all possable..they just try to track down the owner via lost and found reports put the 2 people in contact with one another and thats it. they never actually check for a licence unless your dog gets checked into the shelter or they recieved a report about you and are checking up. so whats the point? why the heck should I give the ciity all my info and fork over $210 every year? like..what do I get out of it? lol, my dogs have never ended up at the shelter and even if they did...who cares, I will just pay the fee and take them home, even when my gate gets left open, most of my dogs dont bother to leave the yard, so its not really a worry of mine lol

[Tommy Coyote]

Kansas City proper has a four animal limit - total of cats, dogs and ferrets. I don't really understand the ferret part.

 

We can also have chickens in town under certain conditions. I think the chicken coop has to be 100 feet from the nearest neighbor and no complaints from neighbors - so you can have hens but not roosters.

 

And our animal control people are jerks and it is best to avoid them at all costs.

[hsnrs]

Not really sure what the limit is here in the county but no one here cares. We have great neighbors.

[mum24dog]

Even without licensing or dog limits, the UK does have other laws regarding animals that I'd have an issue living with.

 

 

Like what?

If you're talking about the Dangerous Dogs Act, yes it's a terrible piece of legislation but no different in essence from what I read about in parts of the US and Canada where pit bulls are also banned. Not everywhere, I know.

 

Pam