Janesville, WI Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Sec. 8-76, carried forward from Code 1976 § 6.12.070, caps every lot or residence in the City of Janesville at a combined total of four dogs and cats, and further bars more than three dogs or three cats regardless of how the combination is split, so a household could keep three dogs and one cat, or two dogs and two cats, but never four dogs alone. The limit applies City-wide to residential lots; it does not extend to business places such as feed mills or to outlying districts such as farms, where the ordinance allows extra animals when the owner can show good reason tied to controlling rats, mice or other rodents.

The section sits in Article III (Keeping of Animals) of Chapter 8, alongside the City's separate poultry, rabbit and beekeeping limits, and enforcement runs through the Janesville Police Department, which handles animal control citywide. A household found over the four-animal cap is not automatically forced to surrender an animal on the spot, but continued noncompliance exposes the owner to repeated citations, since Sec. 8-81 treats each day of a violation as a separate offense. Anyone moving to Janesville with more than four dogs and cats from a jurisdiction with looser limits should re-home the excess animals or seek the farm or business exception before establishing residency, because the ordinance draws no distinction between longtime pets and newly acquired ones.