Santa Monica
LOOKOUT

By Jorge Casuso

May 27, 2025 -- Santa Monica is being overrun with cats and dogs, and earlier this month the City Council quietly took action to rein in the problem.

In a decision approved on consent with no discussion, the Council on May 13 approved an ordinance amending the City's Animal Code that limits the number of dogs and cats per household and expressly prohibits them anywhere on the beach.

The changes clearly authorize an Animal Control Officer to impound a stray animal and impound dangerous ones, while allowing owners to voluntarily license cats.

The action comes after the City's Animal Shelter saw a 39 percent increase in the intake of both dogs and cats between 2021 to 2024, with a 52 percent jump in the intake of cats alone.

Last year the number of cats euthanized in 2024 increased from 11 cats in 2019 to a total of 20 last year. A total of 776 animals were impounded in 2024.

Animal Control has also seen a "significant decrease in the compliance of vaccination and licensing of dogs in the city," according to staff's report to the Council.

"Before 2020, Animal Control would have up to nearly 5,000 dogs licensed in the city each year," staff wrote.

Since the coronavirus shutdown, the number has been reduced by nearly half, with only 2,644 dogs licensed last year, according to the report. So far this year, 1,667 dogs have been licensed.

The ordinance approved by the Council prohibits "keeping more than four dogs over four months of age, and more than five cats over four months of age in a dwelling unit."

The ordinance exempts any dogs that qualify as service animals and owners who own more than four licensed dogs when the ordinance kicks in 30 days after being adopted.

The effective date of the ordinance for owners with more than four licensed cats is 90 days after adoption.

The code specifies that a residential tenant who keeps more than the maximum number of cats or dogs "does not commit a 'nuisance per se' entitling the landlord to terminate the tenancy, unless the number of animals also cause a nuisance," staff wrote.

Under the ordinance, cat owners will also be allowed to license their cats, making it easier for animal control to return a licensed stray wearing a tag issued by the City with the owner's information.

"This will greatly reduce the impounding of (the) stray cat population at the shelter (and) facilitate reuniting cats with owners," staff wrote.

Currently, only dogs are required to be licensed in the City.

The ordinance also addresses consistent reports of dogs running loose on the beach by generally prohibiting them from being "on any surface on beach sands," including being held by owners standing on the beach or sitting on blankets or towels.

The beach is also off limits to cats, whose owners have been known to bring them to the beach in containers "without adequate access to food, water, or a place to defecate or urinate" or letting them out "to defecate and urinate in the beach sands," posing a health hazard.

In addition, the ordinance prohibits dogs in any public cemetery, a change prompted by complaints that "dog owners are allowing their dogs to run off leash throughout" Woodlawn Cemetery, staff said.

The code also addresses dangerous animals by specifying that an Animal Control officer has the power to "summarily and immediately impound a dog or cat that is required to be quarantined" for 10 days after biting a person.

In addition, the code was revised to "require the owner of a dog found to be dangerous to be muzzled and on a leash controlled by an adult at all times the dog is in public or in private property that is not fully enclosed."

An Animal Control officer is required "to vacate a muzzle order if the owner demonstrates that the conditions or behaviors that led to the dangerous animal determination have ceased and are not likely to return."

The "Noisy Animals" section of the code was amended to specify
"the noise is prohibited if it lasts for five continuous minutes or fifteen total minutes in any sixty-minute period."

An Animal Control officer, however, "may decline to investigate a complaint for a violation" if the City "does not receive a second complaint from another household about the same animal within a 12-hour period.”