Owning rabbits and zoning laws

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stargazerLily

stargazerLily

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
250
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Location
North of Dayton, Ohio, USA
Where I live the city supposedly has a law that every household can only own two pets. Not many people know of the law, and I don't think it's strictly enforced unless there is an issue with the amount of animals at a house. And I also know of plenty of people who have more than 2 animals that live just in my neighborhood, not to mention the multitude out in the rest of the city.

My parents were home over the holiday, and my dad mentioned the newest addition to the family (Nebula), and said to be careful because of the zoning laws in the city. Now I'm a little worried. I know of others who have rabbits in the city (along with dogs/cats), and really never thought that rabbits in the city would be an issue, as long as it wasn't out of control (the city isn't that big, maybe 30,000 residents, if that).

Does anyone live in an area where there are zoning laws for rabbits? Have you ever had problems with them? Are they strictly enforced, or only enforced if there is an issue?

 
I am not sure what the law of my city is on how many pets you can have in one household :??

BUT....if they don't do "home inspections" in your city, then there shouldn't be anything to worry about, I would think :p.
 
You should find out what the law actually says. Many laws only take dogs and cats into account. "Caged pets" like rabbits, rats, hamsters, etc. usually aren't counted. I know my city limits pets to no more than 3 dogs and 3 cats, but it's never enforced unless someone makes a complaint. So if you keep your place reasonably clean and the dogs aren't barking at all hours of the night, nobody's going to bug you.

Actually, your local shelter should know the laws. You could call them and ask, saying you are considering adding another pet but want to make sure you're legal. The only reason I know my city's law is that it was on the adoption application for my cats.
 
I'm in Canada, and yes, our cities have zoning by-laws on pets (which can vary from city to city). In Ottawa you are allowed to have no more than 5 pets (no more than 3 adult dogs, 5 cats, or 5 adult rabbits...so any combo of cats, dogs, rabbits that meets this restriction). I am at my limit with my 2 cats, 2 rabbits, and 1 dog. I'm sure that a great many people in the city do exceed these by-laws, but in taking in more than the law permits, are always at some risk of getting caught and then having to give up one or more pets. There was a very sad case here several years ago where an elderly man had 4 dogs...I can't recall the breed now, but it was one of the smaller ones...poms or pekes...and he'd them for years. The dogs were all siblings, all elderly themselves, and they were like his children to this man, but unfortunately a neighbor who'd just moved in next to him happened to notice the man walking his dogs one day, and reported him to the animal control office. The man was forced to give up one of his dogs...it was a very sad story, one of those cases where 'following the letter of the law'...and (imo) someone being downright nasty...caused nothing but heartbreak.

All that said...they don't do house inspections here, so if a person is over by one or two pets, in most cases animal control never even knows. The laws were made to protect the health and safety of both the public and the animals, protecting against people who don't take care of animals as well as against potential hoarders. If you're over by one bunny and as undergunfire said, if the city doesn't do house inspections, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
In my town you are allowed no more than 2 dogs and 3 cats but there is no real restrictions on other animals. Well I'm sure there are restrictions on how many horses you can have in one pasture of a certain size, etc. but there is nothing on small animals.

And really if you think about it, if you have 10 rabbits inside and the town says only 5, who would ever know? The chances of you being caught is slim to none as long as you stay out of trouble and don't attract attention to the problem. Most of these laws are to prevent hoarding and disruption to the public more than anything (like my neighbor who has 6 annoying dogs that never stop barking).

But some cities consider rabbits to be FARM ANIMALS and are not actually allowed to be housed in the city. I don't think this is all that common though.
 
In many cities w/laws like this, they often issue permits for "breeders" who keep more than the limit allowed for pets. Its an easy way for the city to gain extra funds by charging for a permit/license. Sometimes its a base fee plus a per animal fee. Of course all of this varies by city.


 
In Minnesota (sorry, won't say town/city) you can have a max of 3 rabbits outside but there is no limit on how many you can have inside:biggrin2:
 
Around here, the laws vary by municipalilty. I actually hadn't looked up mine regarding rabbits until now. It says "no one shall raise or keep cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, pigeons or rabbits or other rodents, " so I guess I am actually not allowed any rabbits. That is really wierd though because our APA and humane societies both adopt rabbits. Hmm, maybe I will talk to my local HRS and see if we can do anything about this VERY OLD rule.
 
angoralvr wrote:
Around here, the laws vary by municipalilty. I actually hadn't looked up mine regarding rabbits until now. It says "no one shall raise or keep cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, pigeons or rabbits or other rodents, " so I guess I am actually not allowed any rabbits. That is really wierd though because our APA and humane societies both adopt rabbits. Hmm, maybe I will talk to my local HRS and see if we can do anything about this VERY OLD rule.
Click to expand...

LOL! Imagine all the poeple who have hamsters or mice as pets, they are considered rodents :D!

I love how your town law says "rabbit or other rodents"....bunnies aren't rodents :p.
 
I know!!! That is part of the reason I am thinking this is a really old law. When I was looking over the bilaws, a lot of them seem very outdated. I know this law isn't enforced though because I had a building inspector in my house for something earlier this year and he didn't say anything about Henri other then "that is one odd looking rabbit".
 
It's interestingto see that laws do not differ this side of the ocean... In Greece the restriction also involves up to 2 dogs or 2 cats or 1 dog+ 1 cat. The so called "caged" animals (i.e. rabbits (who told them they're caged?),mice, rats, squirrels, chinchillas, birds, etc.) don't count here either, so one can have as many as wished, so long that they don't create a sanitary problem to the neighborhood.

Marietta
 
In living technically in LA, I have yet to find in researching this morning any codes indicating the restriction of the number of animals a person is allowed to have.

Here is where I found all the codes as far as care, etc. But I haven't found anything that limits the NUMBER of animals.

Am I looking in the right place?


 
I am over the limit. There was a big thing about it very recently where they went through a few blocks and seized many animals. But these were poor people and the animals were neglected.

The SPCA knows how many pets I have and they haven't had a problem with it. My landowners also know. Of course they might have said something if the cages were blocking an area and preventing us from being able to evacuate quickly or something but they aren't.

I pity anyone who will try to come in here and seize any one of my animals. My father pities the person too. LOL.
 
i think it is ridiculous to tell someone that they can only have this many animals. IF you can afford to take care of them, and they are not abused or neglected then who are they to tell you ,you cant have them. Well i know who they are but it is not fair.

I know people, my sister in law, who had two dogs and her house smelt ssssssoooooo bad, you could smell it from the outside side walk with the windows and doors shut :vomit:. At the time i had 3 dogs, 3 cats, a lizard, a hamster, a bird, and people would come in an be suprised that i had animals because you couldnt tell. So my sil couldnt handle hers but i could handle and afford mine so how fair would that have been to tell me i had to get rid of x,y,z :nono so silly sometimes.



Where do you find these rules online , nowi want to check it out?
 
I am curious where to find them online, but I also haven't looked yet. The reason I know about the 2 pets rule is because supposedly one of our clients (I work at an animal hospital) got in trouble for the number of dogs she had in her house. This particular client lives about 2 blocks from my house. At the time she got in trouble, she owned 4 dachshunds. I'm not sure how long ago this happened, but from what I've been told, she was ordered to get rid of some of her dogs. Her version of trying to get rid of them was asking for at least $300 for each one. Now she has at least 5 dachshunds and 4 chihuahuas living in her house, the chihuahuas being the most recent additions (2 were purchased for petland 4 months ago, 2 were purchased from petland a couple weeks ago for her "daughter", we don't really believe the last to be true). All of the dogs are fed and taken care of, but we are guessing a neighbor called to complain about the barking or something.

I agree that there shouldn't be a small limit put on the amount of animals a household can have by the city if the person is taking good care of them and they aren't a nuisence. But it is probably one way to make money for the city or something.
 
I really do think that a lot of people have it right when they say that the cities use the restrictions as a way to make money. I know in my city, if you have over your limit of animals, you are supposed to get a kennel license which they charge something around 100 dollars a year for I believe. Here it is only two dogs or two cats or one cat and one dog is all you are allowed.

I don't see how they can really enforce those laws though unless you are a renter or someone decides to tell on you.
 
I understand why they have the laws. It's much harder to prove that someone is neglecting an animal than it is to prove they have more than X number. My local shelter and police are apparently having a hard time collecting enough evidence against a repeat animal neglecter to prosecute him, despite having to take his animals more than once. Although I'm not sure if it was a true seizure or if the police just went in and acted tough till he signed the animals over. Our law on animal neglect was just passed a year or two ago so it's not old andobscure, it's just still hard to prosecute.

Edit: There's a pic of a dwarf hotot from this case in my blog, I just posted it a few days ago.
 
I am pretty sure there isn't in the Fairbanks environs- large teams of sled dogs are yarded up (like up to 80) fairly routinely around here. The house two doors down has 25 dogs...pretty noisy if they all start howling at once.
 
undergunfire wrote:
angoralvr wrote:
Around here, the laws vary by municipalilty. I actually hadn't looked up mine regarding rabbits until now. It says "no one shall raise or keep cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, pigeons or rabbits or other rodents, " so I guess I am actually not allowed any rabbits. That is really wierd though because our APA and humane societies both adopt rabbits. Hmm, maybe I will talk to my local HRS and see if we can do anything about this VERY OLD rule.
Click to expand...

LOL! Imagine all the poeple who have hamsters or mice as pets, they are considered rodents :D!

I love how your town law says "rabbit or other rodents"....bunnies aren't rodents :p.
Click to expand...
Its a very valuable peice of info to know that theyre actually not rodents.I totallybummed my teacher down a few months back we were doing some protected animals things and to live in the area you wernt allowed rodents. So I said me and my bunz will be sweet then, and the teachers like rabbits are rodents and I said i assure you theyre not so he sent me to the dean for "defiance" and my dean has a house bun and knows theyre lagomorphs and corrected him infront of the whole class saying he was actually wrong tehehe..
 
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