Rio Rancho, NM Animal Ordinances: Animal Hoarding (2026)

Rio Rancho does not have an ordinance that uses the term 'animal hoarding,' but several Chapter 90 provisions reach hoarding-type situations. Section 90.20 caps a household at five dogs, cats, pygmy goats, or rabbits in any combination over six months old. Section 90.24 prohibits cruelty, neglect, and abandonment and requires owners to provide proper food, fresh water, shade, shelter, grooming, and veterinary care; it authorizes the Rio Rancho Animal Resource Center (RRARC) to take animals into protective custody when an owner fails to provide care, and to seek a warrant to seize other animals at the same premises when their life or health is endangered, expressly referencing NMSA 1978 Section 30-18-1.1. Section 90.22 also bars keeping animals in a manner that creates noxious or offensive odors or otherwise endangers public health and welfare. On the state side, New Mexico has created the crime of companion animal hoarding, a misdemeanor sentenced under NMSA 1978 Section 31-19-1; a 'companion animal' includes canines, felines, and equines, and a conviction can require psychological assessment/treatment and a court order barring the person from keeping animals. New Mexico's broader animal cruelty statute, NMSA 1978 Section 30-18-1, makes cruelty to animals a misdemeanor (a fourth-degree felony on a fourth or later conviction) and extreme cruelty a fourth-degree felony, and Sections 30-18-1.1 and 30-18-1.2 govern seizure and disposition of mistreated animals.