Lee County has no separate "hoarding" ordinance, but hoarding is reached through its cruelty and care standards. Every animal must have adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care, and sanitary conditions. Keeping animals in cruel or unsanitary conditions is citable and can be a state crime.
Ordinance 14-22 requires owners to provide adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care, and prohibits keeping animals in unsanitary conditions or where debris can injure or endanger them. Cruelty to animals is defined by reference to Chapter 828, Florida Statutes, which the ordinance adopts by reference. Animal Control Officers may impound any animal found to be cruelly treated or in obvious distress, and the owner is liable for all costs; unredeemed animals become county property after five days. These provisions are how the county addresses animal-hoarding situations, alongside criminal cruelty charges under state law.
Impoundment plus citation; owner liable for all care costs. A mandatory $25 Animal Care Trust Fund payment applies to adjudicated violations, plus the FS 828.27(4)(b) surcharge. Serious cruelty can be prosecuted criminally under Chapter 828, F.S.
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See how Cape Coral's animal hoarding rules stack up against other locations.
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