Portsmouth, VA Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

City Code § 4-10, titled 'Keeping of dogs and cats,' does two things. Subsection (a) restricts any accessory structure used to house dogs or cats on residentially zoned land: the structure cannot exceed one-half percent of the lot's area in floor space, neither the building nor any fence-enclosed roaming area may sit closer than 15 feet to a property line, and the structure, pen, or roaming area must be located in the rear yard only. Subsection (b) then sets the household cap: no more than five dogs above the age of six months may be kept in any one dwelling unit or premises within the city limits.

The section does not set a numeric cap on cats, only on dogs past six months, so puppies under that age and any number of cats fall outside the five-dog limit itself, though the accessory-structure setback and size limits in subsection (a) still apply to housing for either species. A property exceeding the dog limit, or violating the structure standards, is subject to the chapterwide penalty at § 4-12: unless another penalty is specified, any Chapter 4 violation is a class 4 misdemeanor, referencing the citywide misdemeanor schedule at § 1-11. Portsmouth adopted the current dog limit and structure standards by Ordinance No. 1989-26 on April 11, 1989.