Fountain Valley, CA Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

The pet cap in the City of Fountain Valley sits in the Development Code, Municipal Code § 21.30.040, Keeping of animals and fowl. Subsection (2), Dogs and Cats, says a maximum of three dogs and/or cats over six months of age shall be allowed as an accessory use. The number is a combined total, not three of each: a household with two dogs and one cat is at the limit, and a fourth animal over six months old goes over it. Puppies and kittens under six months of age are not counted by the text, so a litter does not push a household over the cap until the animals reach that age.\n\nSubsection (3), Other Household Pets, covers everything else.

The keeping of other household pets is allowed if they are of a type readily classifiable as customarily incidental and accessory to an allowed principal residential use when no commercial activity is involved. A rabbit, hamster, bird in a cage, or aquarium fish is that kind of pet, and the commercial-activity condition means breeding-for-sale or boarding operations do not qualify.\n\nThe rule works together with subsection (1), which bars livestock, fowl or other animals of any kind in any subdivision except as the later subsections provide.

Because the three-animal cap counts only dogs and cats, the City Council's code treats those two species as the one carved-out category of animal that comes with a hard number. The separate animal control title, Chapter 7.04, adopts Orange County animal control laws by reference, which is where licensing and nuisance rules live. Under § 7.04.030(h), county-based barking dog and animal nuisance civil fines run from $250 for a first offense to $403 for a sixth and later offense in a twelve-month period. Planning and Building handles the household count, and the animal control contract handles nuisance complaints.