Pennsylvania Dog Limits and Kennel Licensing

The Dog Law, Act 225 of 1982 as amended, is the state framework that local pet-limit ordinances sit under. It contains no numeric limit on pets per home; instead it defines when keeping dogs becomes a licensed kennel operation. Section 102 defines a kennel as any establishment in or through which at least 26 dogs are kept or transferred in a calendar year, or a boarding kennel as separately defined, and it defines a private kennel as one that does not meet the commercial kennel definition and where dogs are kept or bred by their owner for hunting, tracking, or exhibiting in dog shows, performance events, or field and obedience trials.

Section 206(a)(1) requires any person who keeps or operates a kennel to apply to the Department of Agriculture on or before January 1 each year for the appropriate type and class of license, with the class set by the number of dogs housed, kept, harbored, boarded, sheltered, sold, given away or transferred during the previous year. After Act 18 of 2023 the classes in § 206(a)(5) run from Kennel Class I at 50 dogs or fewer for $100, through Class II at 51 to 100 dogs for $250, Class III at 101 to 150 for $375, Class IV at 151 to 250 for $500, Class V at 251 to 500 for $625, and Class VI above 500 dogs for $950; boarding kennels are licensed at Class I for 1 to 10 dogs at $125, Class II for 11 to 25 at $200, and Class III for 26 or more at $325.

Below the kennel threshold the obligation is the individual dog license. Section 201(a), amended October 23, 2023, requires the owner of any dog three months of age or older to apply on or before January 1 each year, or on transfer to a new owner, to the county treasurer or an agent under § 200(a) for a license, with the fee at $7 per dog and $5 for residents 65 or older and persons with disabilities; § 201(b) offers a lifetime license at $49, or $33 for those same groups.

Because the state statute stops at licensing, any actual cap on the number of dogs or cats in a home comes from a municipal ordinance, and the city pages on this site quote those where they exist.

Keeping or transferring 26 or more dogs in a calendar year without the kennel license required by § 206 is a violation of the Dog Law enforced by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement, and an unlicensed dog three months of age or older violates § 201, which carries its own penalties in that section. Municipal limits on the number of animals per household are enforced locally and are separate from the state license.