Shoreline, WA Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Section 20.40.240 of the Shoreline Municipal Code sets citywide limits on animal keeping as an accessory use to any residential property. Subsection C addresses small animals, a category broad enough to include household cats and dogs. Animals kept exclusively indoors as household pets, such as those in aquariums, terrariums or cages, are not numerically capped except as provided in SMC § 20.30.740. However, regardless of how many animals a household keeps overall, the number of unaltered adult cats and dogs is capped at three per household, and any unaltered animal kept outdoors must be leashed or confined.

Separately, the code limits the total number of small animals, including cats and dogs, allowed outside to three per household on lots smaller than 20,000 square feet. Larger lots gain flexibility: one additional small animal is allowed for every additional 5,000 square feet of lot area beyond 20,000 square feet, up to an overall ceiling of 20 animals. Animals younger than two months are excluded from every density calculation in this section. The Director resolves ambiguous cases under subsection H by categorizing an animal according to its size and its impact on neighboring properties.

All animal keeping, capped or not, must also meet the odor, vector-control, containment and waterway-protection standards in subsection K, which apply on top of the numeric caps. Because the pet-limit standards sit within the Development Code's zoning chapter, violations are processed as zoning code violations rather than under the separately enforced, King County-based animal control provisions in SMC Title 6.