The Sandy City Council was poised to take the final step Tuesday to update its municipal code to allow residents to have up to three dogs — instead of two — without a dog hobby license.
“There are quite a few residents that feel that … having more dogs is still manageable and responsible," Alison Stroud, council member for Sandy City District 2, said in an interview Tuesday.
Previously, if a city resident wanted more than two dogs, he or she had to apply for a hobby license to have up to five dogs. These licenses require residents to have a covered outside enclosure that is a certain size — depending on the number of dogs — and a certain distance from property lines.
“If [residents] were found to have three dogs … then animal control would go in and cite the residents and give them a certain amount of time to apply for a hobby license," Stroud told The Tribune.
"In the meantime … every 30 days a resident could be re-cited for having a third pet and at some point after so many citations it then becomes a misdemeanor.”
But in the past 15 years, no one has been taken to court over getting a hobby license. Stroud said animal control works with residents and if Utahns can show that they are working toward complying with the law they are not given a citation.
Stroud said she doesn’t know where the requirement came from but other local municipalities also have a two-dog limit. She recognized the issue in December when a constituent came to her after being cited for having three Yorkshire terriers without a license.
Because the resident’s dogs primarily stay indoors, it didn’t make sense to build a large enclosure for three 10-pound dogs. And digging holes in her frozen backyard to set up posts for the enclosure just wasn’t practical.
Stroud looked into the issue and found that many jurisdictions in the Salt Lake area allow residents to have three, four or even an unlimited numbers of dogs.
On April 21, the City Council unanimously voted to amend one section of the municipal code to let residents have up to three dogs without a hobby license.
The change was to become official Tuesday night after the city Planning Commission adopted an amendment to a second area of the city code that also mentions the animal requirement.
“I’m a firm believer that ordinances and laws shouldn’t be changed for the convenience of residents," Stroud said. "But that at times it should be reviewed to better reflect the desires that residents have.”