Chapel Hill, NC Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Section 4-10(g) of the Chapel Hill Code sets a flat household cap on dogs: no household may maintain more than four dogs over the age of three months, no matter how many adults or families share the address. The limit sits inside the same section that separately caps chickens at ten, restricts farm animals to large lots, and bans wild and dangerous species, but subsection (g) is written as its own freestanding rule rather than tied to any of those other limits. Unlike the exemptions in Section 4-10(h), which lift the wild-animal, public-safety, livestock and chicken restrictions for animals temporarily at a licensed veterinarian's office, that carve-out does not extend to the four-dog cap in subsection (g).

The Code sets no parallel numeric limit on cats anywhere in Chapter 4. Because Section 4-10 does not spell out its own fine, a violation of the four-dog cap is punished under the Section 1-7 general penalty: a fine of not more than fifty dollars or imprisonment of not more than thirty days, with each day the extra dogs remain in the household charged as a separate offense. The Chapel Hill animal control division, described in Section 4-2, investigates complaints and issues the citation.