Commerce City, CO Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

Commerce City's pot-bellied pig rule sits inside the broader Sec. 4-2008 prohibited-and-regulated-animals section of the Animal Code. Subsection (e) lists the only lawful ways to keep a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig in the city: at a farming operation zoned for agricultural use, at a veterinarian hospital, at an educational facility licensed by the State of Colorado, at a commercial enterprise licensed as a pet shop, or on a single residential parcel if the owner meets all four conditions in paragraph (e)(5). Those conditions cap ownership at one pig per parcel, require the animal to be domesticated, cap its weight at seventy pounds, and require spaying or neutering by six months of age.

The section sets no separate fine schedule for pot-bellied pigs, so a violation falls under the Sec. 1-5 general penalty: a fine of up to three hundred dollars, up to ninety days in jail, or both, with each day of a continuing violation charged as a separate offense. Animal control agents, working under the Commerce City Police Department per Chapter 4, investigate complaints and can issue a summons to municipal court under Sec. 4-1005. Commerce City does not impose a parallel spay or neuter mandate on ordinary pet dogs and cats; the six-month deadline in Sec. 4-2008(e)(5)(d) applies specifically to pot-bellied pigs kept under the single-parcel exception.