Chicago: New Five Dog Limit?

Alderman Ray Suarez (31st) introduced a city ordinance at yesterday's council meeting that would limit the number of dogs Chicago households are allowed to have to five. Suarez said that a 27/50 majority have already communicated support for this ordinance.

Due in large part to the problem of people not picking up their dogs' feces and allowing it to stink up their - and their unappreciative neighbors' - yards, Suarez hopes the ordinance (if passed) will allow all people to enjoy their yards stink-free.

The ordinance will be debated by the council's License committee, but a date for that has not been set. It will be a public hearing, so if you have strong opinions on this matter you should plan to attend.

As for me, I think this ordinance will be mostly useless if passed. I mean, first and foremost, how are they going to enforce it? And why do I want them to take time to enforce how many dogs my neighbor has pooping in his backyard when that takes away from other, more important, laws they could be enforcing?

Also, I don't love the idea of the government telling me how many pets I can have. We have animal cruelty laws in place (though I do think those could be stepped up in severity) so that if people are neglectful of cleaning their pets' living areas properly there are penalties. Perhaps the focus should be on amending the laws already in place, rather than adding new ones that will be hard to enforce and which restrict peoples' freedom.

I mean, if I had six dogs I'd make sure their poop was cleaned up.