Colorado foster pet families concerned over unintended consequences of city pet limits

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — Northglenn's new pet limit ordinance went into effect over the weekend.

"We had a couple of residents come to a city council meeting, and they expressed concern over their neighbors having too many dogs in their backyard," said James Burlison, public information officer with the Northglenn Police Department. "Smell, lots of noise from the barking, the residents said they were unable to enjoy their own backyard, so one of the city council members decided to take it up."

The department worked with the city to come up with the new ordinance, which caps the total number of pets residents can have in their house at four. Residents can have up to four dogs or up to four cats, or a combination of the two, as long as it does not exceed four total.

Northglenn

New limit on number of dogs, cats per household begins Aug. 1 in Northglenn

Katie Parkins

Owners who had more pets than that had time to file an exemption before the new ordinance went into effect.

"We had 171 households become approved for the exemption, and that totaled 1,120 pets," Burlison said.

Denver7 asked if there was an exemption for anyone who is fostering several pets.

"The ordinance does not provide a specific fostering exemption," Burlison replied. "We do want to say that. The fostering is great, and we need more of that because the animal shelters like Riverdale are overwhelmed with animals."

Northglenn is not the only city in Adams County that has an ordinance like this.

City of Northglenn

Most municipalities with pet limits do not make an exception for foster pet parents, even though the Colorado Code sets the state limit at eight total foster pets.

"It's a bit frustrating, just because we know how burdened the system is, and we do feel like that will lead to some situations where there are going to be fewer opportunities for adoptions and more euthanization," said Mary Ervin with PawsCo Rescue.

Ervin told Denver7 she has between three to five pets in her home when she's helping foster. She said it's not uncommon for other foster pet parents with the time and space in their homes to foster several pets at a time.

"It would be wonderful if we could have help with advocating for the rescues and shelters in your communities, and looking at those ordinances and trying to advocate for that exception policy for fosters, especially so that we can save more animals," Ervin said.

Northglenn PD insists its priority is not to take pets out of homes with this new ordinance.

"We're not going door to door, doing random pet checks, anything like that. If we get a complaint, we are going to investigate that complaint, or if we're at the home for a different crime, then that might be something that we issue a citation for," Burlison said. "We think that this ordinance also puts in some safeguards for pet owners to be able to successfully and safely care for those animals."

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