Southfield, MI Animal Ordinances: Pet Limits (2026)

Southfield City Code § 9.81 sets the household pet cap for the City of Southfield: three dogs or six cats, each six months of age or older, per premises. The section ties the limit to the address rather than to any individual resident, providing that where more than one owner or person resides at any one address, those owners or persons together still cannot have more than three dogs or six cats at that address. A duplex or a shared household with several adult residents therefore cannot exceed the combined total by dividing pets among residents.

Two narrow carve-outs exist. First, dog kennels licensed and operating under § 9.79, which tracks the state kennel-license scheme in 1972 PA 349 (MCL 287.270), are not subject to the numeric cap. Second, cats already licensed under § 9.83 before the effective date of the current cap were grandfathered in and do not have to be surrendered or removed. The cap sits inside Chapter 113, Animals, which the Southfield Police Department's animal control officers enforce alongside licensing under § 9.83, leash and stray control under § 9.82, and rabies reporting under § 9.72.

A resident who exceeds the limit is not automatically criminally charged: § 9.88 makes any Chapter 113 violation a municipal civil infraction carrying the civil fines set under § 1.703 of Chapter 15, unless a section, such as § 9.82's repeat-offense clause, expressly provides a different, stiffer penalty. The ordinance traces to Ord. No. 1213 in 1986 and was last amended by Ord. No. 1580 on June 3, 2012.