Kauai County, HI Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

On Kaua'i (Kaua'i County), the county code does not set a flat cap on how many dogs or cats an ordinary household may keep; instead, the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance regulates the point at which pet-related activity becomes a zoning-classified commercial use. Section 8-1.5 defines "pet keeping" as feeding or sheltering more than two animals or four birds as a service to others, and "pet raising" as breeding, feeding, or sheltering more than two animals not normally used for human consumption for the purpose of sale to others.

Once an operation crosses either threshold and does so commercially, it stops being ordinary pet ownership and becomes a use the county's Table of Uses tracks separately in the Agricultural District. Table 8-2.4(r)(16) lists pet keeping and raising as a permitted use in that district, but § 8-2.4(s)(13) carves out an exception: pet keeping and raising proposed within 500 feet of any Residential District instead requires a discretionary Use Permit from the Planning Commission rather than automatic approval. That proximity trigger exists to buffer nearby homes from the noise, odor, and traffic that commercial-scale kennels, catteries, or breeding operations can bring.

A resident simply keeping a handful of household pets for companionship, without feeding or sheltering them as a paid service or breeding them for sale, falls outside these commercial pet keeping and pet raising definitions altogether.