Arapahoe County, CO Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Chapter 3's Use-Specific Standards fix a per-dwelling pet ceiling that applies only inside unincorporated Arapahoe County, this rule stops at the boundary of Aurora, Centennial, Littleton, Englewood, Sheridan, Glendale and the county's other incorporated cities, which set their own animal limits under their own codes. E, a household in the RR-C, R-1-A, R-1-B, R-1-C, R-1-D, R-2-A or R-2-B zone districts, in a PUD-zoned residential area, or in the R-M district may keep no more than a combined three dogs and cats per dwelling unit. 41 acres, catching higher-density residential pockets that might otherwise look uncapped.

Properties in the more rural A-1, RR-A and RR-B districts get one more animal, topping out at four pets per dwelling unit. Only the A-E agricultural-estate district is uncapped; the Code states plainly there is no limit on the number of pets there. The cap counts pets in combination rather than per species, so a household in an R-1-B lot could keep two dogs and one cat but not three of each. Because the limit sits in the zoning code rather than the county's animal-control resolution, exceeding it is a land-use violation rather than an Animal Services citation, and falls to the Director of Public Works and Development's Code Compliance function that administers Land Development Code compliance across unincorporated Arapahoe County.