TOLEDO, Ohio — The city of Toledo is considering a new policy that would set a limit on the number of dogs allowed in people's homes.
Toledo City Council member Adam Martinez said the ordinance would first request the Plan Commission to study whether it would benefit the city to put a regulation in place.
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"The first step is to have the study. In the event that they came back with a recommendation, we would have a public forum because we're not doing this in a vacuum," Martinez said. "We want to make sure that both pet owners and residents have a voice in this and understand what we're really trying to accomplish."
A permit would require an evaluation of pet owners' properties, looking at the living conditions of the dogs they have there.
"If you're going to have more than five licensed dogs on your residence, you would need what's called a special use permit. We want to make sure that we're being good neighbors, that we're taking care of our animals," Martinez said. "If there's continual barking at certain amounts of time that they have, that the dogs have plenty of food and water and space to run. We want to make sure that our dogs are being taken care of in a good way."
With no current rule in place besides general dog licenses, Martinez said this could combat dog misuse and neglect.
"Unfortunately, right now it's very scattershot with no real consequences, so I'm not trying to change anything but other than enforce what's in the books," he said.
Martinez hopes the ordinance would also address the number of upset neighbors putting in complaints about puppies yelping.
"A special conditional permit that said, 'hey, I had four dogs, we have two litters that we're trying to get rid of but we're not doing this as a business.' This, we just want to make sure that we're getting rid of them and finding a good home. This would be an appropriate route to do that."
There would be consequences for those who don't follow the guidelines and match the criteria, too.
"There's a fine associated with it and then we'll come back in 30 days and if you haven't complied well here's an additional fine because you're not in compliance," Martinez said.