Santa Clara, CA Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

020(a) sets the headline limit: no more than a total of three adult dogs and cats, in any combination, over four months of age, at any street address. Subsection (b) adds a separate cap on breeding stock: no more than one unspayed female dog and no more than one unspayed female cat at that same address. Subsection (c) makes every female dog or cat rebuttably presumed unspayed unless the owner proves otherwise, though a licensed veterinarian's written certification that the animal cannot be spayed for health reasons, or is incapable of breeding, satisfies that burden in place of a spay certificate.

Subsection (d) limits litters directly: no person may allow the parturition and rearing of more than one litter of dogs or cats in any calendar year from females they own or that are kept on their premises. Subsection (e) exempts licensed veterinarians practicing in California, and any pet shop, commercial kennel, private kennel, animal shelter or animal menagerie holding a valid Administrator-issued permit, from the numeric caps entirely. Because the limit is tied to the animal's age (over four months) rather than species alone, a household with kittens or puppies under four months is not counted against the three-animal ceiling until they age past that mark, but the litter limit in subsection (d) still governs how often that litter can occur in the first place.