Kings County, CA Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Kings County's Chapter 4 (Animals and Fowl) regulates larger concentrations of dogs and cats through kennel and multiple-animal permitting rather than a strict household cap of a few pets. The Code defines a 'kennel' as any place or premises where ten or more dogs or cats, or combinations thereof, over the age of four months are kept. Building on that, the multiple-animal permit provision (Sec. 4-33) requires that every person who owns, manages or operates a kennel housing ten or more altered dogs or cats obtain a multiple-animal permit. This means a typical household with a handful of pets does not need a special permit, but once you reach roughly ten or more dogs and/or cats, you cross into kennel territory and must be permitted. Separately, all dogs over four months must be licensed and vaccinated, and unaltered dogs require an annual unaltered-dog license (Sec. 4-38). Animal numbers may also be limited in practice by zoning and by the noisy-animal nuisance rule (Sec. 4-79), which lets the County act when barking or other animal noise unreasonably disturbs neighbors. Because exact thresholds and conditions can change, confirm current requirements with Kings County Animal Services and check your parcel's zoning before keeping a large number of animals.