Round Lake's new pet rules allows combinations

More dogs and cats will now be able to call Round Lake home this year.

At a meeting Monday evening, village board trustees voted 6-0 in favor of an ordinance boosting the total number of cats and dogs that can live in a home from two to four.

Round Lake Mayor James Dietz said the village's dog and cat regulations have been a source of debate over the years.

"I think there were some trustees and a lot of residents in the town who thought two was too low," Dietz said.

Round Lake residents Pamela Mazzanti and Silvia Smith attended a village board meeting in December to ask that officials increase the number of allowable pets. Mazzanti reiterated her desire for more animals at Monday's meeting.

With the new ordinance, there will be a limit of three dogs or cats in a household.

However, the village will allow a maximum combination of four animals.

Dietz said Round Lake officials studied local laws in other villages before settling on the number of animals permitted in a home.

Local animal laws can become a source of suburban controversy.

In Wheeling last year, the village's lack of specificity in its animal ordinance was cited by a Cook County judge who ruled that a woman could keep her fifth dog - despite the village's four-pet limit.

Wheeling made it illegal "for any person to keep or harbor more than four of any type or combination of animals" older than four months. The judge suggested Wheeling should rewrite its law to have a household limit on animals.