Bristol, CT Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Section 4-2 of the Bristol Code of Ordinances defines a kennel as any premises on which four (4) or more dogs, four (4) months old or older, are owned or kept, and requires that a kennel premises located in a residential area be a minimum of two (2) acres. The section, added by an ordinance adopted April 3, 1979, does not itself state a flat per-household dog limit; instead it sets the threshold at which a residential dog-keeping operation is treated as a kennel and becomes subject to the two-acre minimum lot size rather than being freely permitted on an ordinary residential parcel.

A Bristol household keeping three or fewer dogs over four months old falls outside the kennel definition entirely. Because Chapter 4, Animals and Fowl, is among the chapters the city council designated in Section 23-2 for enforcement by citation officers, a residential property that keeps a kennel-sized group of dogs without meeting the two-acre minimum is enforceable the same way as any other Chapter 4 violation: a ninety-dollar ($90.00) base fine under Section 23-5, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense, an added administrative fee of two dollars ($2.00) per ten dollars ($10.00) of the fine, and an unpaid or appealed fine that doubles after fifteen days and triples after thirty days. The animal control officer and Bristol Police Department are the officials who act on kennel-related complaints under this framework.