Carteret County, NC Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Section 1102 of the Carteret County Zoning Ordinance defines 'animal hospital/veterinary clinic' as a place or facility which provides dental, medical or surgical care for dogs, cats and other domesticated animals, and states that kennels are not included within that definition. The distinction matters because the ordinance separately defines 'kennel' as a place or facility prepared to house, board, breed, handle, train, or otherwise keep or care for dogs and cats belonging to the owner, customers, or the general public, including strays, for compensation or as a humanitarian gesture, while expressly exempting from that kennel definition any facility that provides dental, medical, or surgical care.

In other words, a clinic that only treats animals is zoned and classified as a veterinary clinic, not a kennel, even if it also boards patients short-term for treatment, while a boarding, breeding, or training operation is classified as a kennel and reviewed under the county's separate kennel standards. Because the two use categories are listed independently in the Table of Permitted and Special Uses referenced throughout the zoning ordinance, a veterinary clinic and a kennel proposed on the same parcel are evaluated against different district-by-district permission rules, and an applicant cannot rely on one definition to avoid the review that applies to the other use.