Mesa, AZ Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Mesa City Code § 6-4-1 defines "KENNEL" as an enclosed controlled area, inaccessible to other animals, in which a person keeps, harbors, or maintains five (5) or more dogs under controlled conditions. That definition is the operative trigger for Section 6-4-4, "Kennel Permit; Fee; Violation; Classification," which requires anyone operating a kennel to obtain a permit issued by the Board of Supervisors of the county where the kennel is located, except where each individual dog is licensed separately instead. 00), and a person who knowingly fails to obtain the permit within thirty (30) days of written notification from the City's enforcement agent is guilty of a misdemeanor.

A dog kept within a licensed kennel is not required to be licensed individually, but any dog that leaves the controlled kennel conditions must be individually licensed unless it is only being transported between kennels that both hold permits. 00) penalty in addition to the annual fee. Below the five-dog threshold, Mesa does not impose a numeric household pet cap in Chapter 4; instead, each dog four months or older kept in the City for at least thirty consecutive days must be individually licensed under Section 6-4-3, with fees set by Maricopa County Animal Control Services.

The practical effect of the kennel definition is that a Mesa household keeping four or fewer dogs operates under the ordinary individual-licensing rules, while five or more triggers the county kennel-permit process administered through the City's enforcement agent.