ORANGE, Texas — Animal owners in the City of Orange can expect a new pet policy. Council members passed an ordinance on Tuesday that limits the amount of cats and dogs residents living within the city limits can have at their home.
Residents will not be able to have more than a total of five cats or dogs in one household.
According to the city's Mayor Pro-Tem Paul Burch, the ordinance is meant to keep pet owners accountable and help to reduce the number of strays roaming the streets.
"The chambers were full of constituents with complaints about dogs that are not being cared for," he said. "People having 10, 12, 15 dogs in their backyard that are not being taken care of."
Many factors went into the decision to limit pets, including noise, according to Burch.
"When they were causing problems for our shift workers, one dog starts barking, 10, 12, 15 dogs start barking," he said. "Then if you have a pet, your dog gets to barking."
Orange Animal Control will be responsible for enforcing the new ordinance.
"They're not gonna be knocking on doors saying how many do you have, they're really going to work with people to find places for them to go," said Burch.
According to Orange Animal Control Supervisor of Animal Shelter Operations Andy Borel, limiting the number of pets at a home will keep animals and people safe.
"It makes it easier and safer on rescuers, the less numbers you have to rescue, the easier it is to move people around in disaster situations," said Borel.
Borel welcomes the new ordinance, but is also aware that it could become a problem for crowded animal shelters.
"I do feel that, yes, due to people having so many and some of them may not be so people friendly, I think they'll end up saying okay we're just going to surrender it to the shelter."
For residents who have more than five cats and dogs at their home, they can work with Orange animal control to find the animal a new home.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.