St. Johns County, FL Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

The St. Johns County Land Development Code treats household pets as a permitted accessory use in residential zoning districts rather than through a separate animal control chapter. 1 sets the ceiling at five household animals over ten weeks of age per lot; a homeowner who wants a sixth dog, cat or similar pet must first obtain a Special Use approval allowing the greater number, a process handled through Growth Management's Planning and Zoning division rather than an automatic permit. The code separately bars keeping or raising animals for commercial sale in any residential district, so a backyard breeding or sale operation is off-limits regardless of headcount.

The five-animal cap only counts pets that would ordinarily occupy yard space: the code explicitly excludes small, contained household animals housed inside the residence, naming freshwater and saltwater fish, hamsters and turtles as examples of species that never count toward the limit no matter how many tanks or cages a household keeps. Because this rule lives in the zoning code rather than the county's animal control ordinance, which is not codified on Municode and exists only in the Clerk's ordinance books, enforcement runs through code compliance as a zoning violation rather than an animal control citation, and the remedy is reducing the pet count or applying for the Special Use before adding animals.