Southampton, NY Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Southampton's animal law, Chapter 150 of the Town Code, does not set a flat numeric limit on pets kept as ordinary household companions. Instead, the definitions in § 150-4 draw the line at spay and neuter status: any premises wherein any person is harboring more than four unspayed or unneutered dogs or cats shall be considered a kennel for the purposes of this chapter. Once a home crosses that four-animal threshold with intact dogs or cats, it falls into the Town's kennel and commercial animal establishment category, alongside pet shops, grooming shops and boarding facilities, a classification the Code treats differently from ordinary pet ownership; spaying or neutering keeps a household of any size out of the kennel definition.

A second, separate limit applies under the Zoning Code to outdoor housing rather than indoor pets: § 330-76J of Chapter 330 provides that the keeping of more than two dogs more than six months old in outdoor shelters or pens, or the keeping of any horses or farm livestock, must conform to the agricultural standards of § 330-79, which require animal husbandry to be sited on at least 10 acres with shelters set back at least 150 feet from any street line and 200 feet from any other property line, except in the case of a veterinarian, veterinary hospital or kennel.

Together, these two provisions mean an unincorporated-hamlet household can keep dogs and cats freely inside the home, but adding a third or more intact animal, or housing more than two dogs in outdoor pens, triggers additional Town Code requirements enforced by Public Safety and the Department of Land Management.