Dogs and Cats in Toronto: How Many You Can Keep at Home and Whether Your Pet Needs a City Licence

The day a new dog or cat comes home, two separate rules in Toronto’s Municipal Code Chapter 349 apply at once: one about the animal’s licence, one about how many animals your unit holds.

I’m Arthur Zhao, a real estate broker in Toronto. Picture the moment the carrier door opens on your living room floor: a dog from a shelter adoption, or a kitten a friend could not keep. From the City’s point of view, two things happen right then.

First, you become that animal’s owner, and Toronto’s Municipal Code Chapter 349 defines that word broadly: a person who possesses, harbours or has custody of an animal. An owner of a dog or a cat has to register it with the City and put a licence tag on it.

Second, the animal joins a count. The same chapter caps how many dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs can be kept in a dwelling unit, and the newcomer is part of that number from day one.

Below I take these in order: the licence, then the limits, then who is exempt, then the penalties. Walking rules and renting come at the end.

Licensing: what every dog owner and cat owner has to do

According to Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 349 (2026), §349-11 gives every owner of a dog four duties, and §349-19 repeats the same four for every owner of a cat:

• Register the animal with the Executive Director of Municipal Licensing and Standards, pay the licence fee, and get a licence tag (the tag carries its own fee for dogs).
• Renew before each licence expires, for as long as you remain the owner.
• Keep the tag securely fixed on the animal at all times. The cat section makes no exception for a cat that never goes outside.
• Pay a replacement fee if the tag is lost.

The fee amounts are not in Chapter 349 itself; it points to Municipal Code Chapter 441, Fees and Charges. I have not checked the current figures there, so I am not quoting any.

Two exceptions are written in. §349-13 says §349-11 “does not apply to any owner of a service animal,” and §349-19E says the owner of a cat that is a service animal does not have to meet the cat licensing requirements for that animal. Chapter 349 defines a service animal by reference to s.80.45(4) of O. Reg. 191/11 under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.

One thing the chapter does not do is give a number of days for the first registration. It is written as a standing duty of every owner, not as a deadline that starts later.

The limits per dwelling unit: three dogs, six cats, four rabbits or guinea pigs

§349-5 was replaced in full by By-law 1065-2022, in force December 1, 2022. It now sets three caps:

• Dogs (§349-5A): no person shall keep more than three dogs “in and about any dwelling unit” in the City.
• Cats (§349-5B): no person shall keep more than six cats “in any dwelling unit.”
• Rabbits and guinea pigs (§349-5E): no more than four, alone or combined, “in and about any dwelling unit.”

Note the wording. Dogs and rabbits/guinea pigs are counted “in and about” the unit; cats are counted “in” it. The chapter does not define “in and about” any further.

The unit of measure is the dwelling unit, which Chapter 349 defines as one room or a group of rooms used, or capable of being used, as a home for one or more people, with only one kitchen or other facility for preparing meals. If a property contains more than one unit that fits that definition, the cap is written against “any dwelling unit.” The chapter does not walk through how that applies to a particular house, so a property-specific question belongs with the City.

The section is phrased as “no person shall keep.” It does not separately address two people in the same unit who each keep animals, and I would not treat splitting ownership inside one household as a way around the cap without the City confirming it.

Who is exempt or grandfathered

Animals you already had. §349-5A lets a person who, “on the date of the passage of this chapter,” was lawfully keeping more than three dogs keep those dogs until they have died or are otherwise disposed of; §349-5B does the same for more than six cats. That sentence does not put a calendar date on “the passage of this chapter,” and the exception covers the specific animals, not replacements. For rabbits and guinea pigs the date is explicit: anyone lawfully keeping more than four on December 1, 2022 may keep them until they die, but if the number was 10 or more, only 10 may be kept (§349-5F).

Rescue group members. §349-5C says the limits do not apply to individual members of a rescue group who are keeping dogs, cats, rabbits or guinea pigs for or on behalf of that group. A rescue group, under §349-1, is a not-for-profit or charitable organization registered with Toronto Animal Services whose mandate and practices are predominately the rescue and placement of animals and facilitating spaying or neutering.

There is a wrinkle in the text. §349-5C lists the subsections it switches off as “349-5A, 349-4B or 349-5E.” §349-5A is the dog cap and §349-5E is the rabbit and guinea pig cap, but §349-4B is not the cat cap at all; it is an exception for the premises of an Ontario SPCA affiliate or branch from the prohibited-animals rule. My reading is that “349-5B” was probably intended, but that is my reading, not what the by-law says. As written, the rescue exemption names the dog limit and the rabbit/guinea pig limit, and I would not tell a cat foster that the six-cat cap is lifted.

Service animals. §349-5D says service animals required by a person with a disability are not counted when determining the number of dogs under §349-5A. That subsection speaks only to the dog count.

Penalties: what the chapter allows a court to impose

§349-27 covers offences, and it applies to the whole chapter, so an unlicensed dog and a fourth dog fall under the same section:

• §349-27A: every person who contravenes any provision of Chapter 349 is guilty of an offence and, on conviction, liable to a fine of no more than $100,000.
• §349-27B: on top of that, a person who gains an economic advantage from the contravention is liable to a special fine equal to the fair market value of that gain.
• §349-27F: each offence is a continuing offence, with a maximum fine for each day or part of a day it continues.

These are maximums set in the by-law. The chapter does not list ticket amounts, and I have not verified the City’s set-fine schedule, so I am not quoting a ticket figure here.

Walking your dog: leash length and the three-dog handling rule

Two rules apply once a dog leaves your property. Under §349-12, a dog may not be at large; it is deemed at large when found off the owner’s property and not under anyone’s control. Under §349-12.1A, a dog off the owner’s premises must be on a leash no longer than two metres, except in designated areas of a City park as permitted by Chapter 608, Parks.

§349-12.1B adds a separate handling cap: no one may control more than three dogs at any time without a commercial dog walker permit under Chapter 608, and anyone seen controlling more than three must show that permit to an officer on request (§349-12.1C and D). This is about the dogs in your hands on the sidewalk, not the dogs living in your unit, so the two three-dog rules are counted separately.

If you rent

A no-pet clause in a residential lease is a Residential Tenancies Act question, and the Act treats that clause as void; I covered that in a separate article on no-pet clauses. The City limits are a different layer: §349-5 applies to “any person,” so a tenant’s home is capped the same way an owner’s is.

Two rules, two different questions

Before and after a new pet comes home