New Rochelle, NY Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 331-4 of the Zoning Code defines HOUSEHOLD PET as an animal commonly kept in a dwelling unit for amusement or companionship, such as a dog, cat, bird, fish, gerbil, hamster or nonpoisonous snake. The same definition then draws a hard line: a goat, pony, horse, sheep, chicken or rooster is not a household pet, and neither are more than four dogs or cats over six months of age, more than ten gerbils or hamsters over two months of age, or more than three nonpoisonous snakes.

That distinction matters because every residential district in the Schedule of Dimensional Regulations lists the keeping of household pets as defined by § 331-4 as the only permitted accessory animal use, and the R1-20 One-Family Residence District spells this out directly among its permitted accessory uses. Because farm and exotic animals fall outside the § 331-4 definition, keeping them is not a permitted accessory use in any district built on that same list, which functions as a citywide ban on backyard livestock and undomesticated pets rather than a case-by-case restriction.

A resident who wants a fifth dog, an eleventh hamster, or a fourth pet snake runs into the same numeric ceiling, since the definition counts animals rather than species. The Building Official enforces the Zoning Code's use provisions, and a property found housing a disqualified animal is treated as a zoning use violation rather than a health code matter, putting it under the penalty and enforcement scheme in § 331-140 rather than the City's separate animal-control ordinances.