Portland, ME Animal Ordinances: Animal Hoarding (2026)

Portland City Code Chapter 5 (Animals and Fowl) regulates dogs (Article II), chickens (Article IV, capped at six per lot), wildlife feeding, pet shop sales, and traveling wild-animal acts — but does NOT include a numeric cap on the number of dogs, cats, or other domestic pets a household may keep, and does not use the term 'animal hoarding.' Enforcement of hoarding situations therefore runs through Maine state law. Title 17 MRS §1031 (Cruelty to Animals) makes it a Class D crime (Class C if there are two or more prior convictions) to deprive an animal one owns or possesses of 'necessary sustenance, necessary medical attention, proper shelter, protection from the weather or humanely clean conditions' — the classic hoarding-case factual pattern. Title 7 MRS Chapter 739 (Cruelty to Animals — Civil) provides a parallel civil track at 7 MRS §4011, allowing animal welfare officers and humane agents to seize neglected animals and place them in protective custody. Maine's Animal Welfare Program (DACF) and humane agents work alongside the Portland animal control officer (Sec. 5-19) and the Maine state-licensed humane investigators. Hoarding situations are typically identified through neighbor complaints triggering inspections under Title 22 (public-health code) and Portland's housing/sanitation code (Chapter 22, §22-15 — feeding of animals controls for rodents and vermin).