A family that moved to Powell with their four dogs in 2025 is asking the city of Powell to reconsider its ordinance that currently allows for no more than two pets per residence.
The Powell City Council voted earlier this month to send the consideration to the city’s planning and zoning commission for discussion.
“Pets bring out everybody’s emotions,” Mayor John Wetzel told Cowboy State Daily. “Whenever we start talking about people’s pets, there’s emotion involved.”
The request has the city of just over 6,000 residents reconsidering its more than two-decade-old ordinance.
Pittmans’ Story
Chris Pittman moved with his family and four dogs to Powell from Sweetwater, Texas, in September 2025, intending to care for his ailing father-in-law, who lived in Basin.
They had initially planned to move to Basin, he said. But while they were in the middle of their move, his father-in-law died and their housing plans in Basin fell through.
The family bought a house on a .16-acre lot in Powell and moved in with their four dogs.
The day after they moved in, Pittman said neighbors called in a noise complaint. His dogs were reportedly barking at the birds.
It was then that Pittman, who grew up in Wyoming, learned about Powell’s city ordinance allowing for no more than two pets per residence.
“We were like, now what do we do?” Pittman told Cowboy State Daily.
A police officer suggested that Pittman ask the city council for an exemption to the two-pet ordinance, saying they moved from out-of-state and didn’t know the laws.
Pittman’s teenage daughter, Leah, wrote a letter to the city, pleading with officials to ease up on the two-pet limit. She wrote that allowing four pets would “better reflect the needs of responsible residents who own multiple dogs while still maintaining community standards.”
“If we were forced to get rid of two of our dogs, they would go into the shelter,” Chris Pittman said. “And then all you’re doing is burdening the taxpayers.”
Pittman said he paid a contractor $7,000 to put up a 6-foot privacy fence.
“I hoped it would solve my dogs not seeing the neighbors’ dogs and tortoises and birds,” he said.
Ordinance And Council Meeting
The two-pet-per-residence ordinance has been in place in Powell for more than 20 years, Wetzel said.
When a resident is found to be in violation of the ordinance, the resident initially receives a warning. If a second violation occurs, the resident is fined $50. A higher fine follows on the third violation.
“I feel for them, but I assume there’s a reason they got a phone call,” Wetzel said of the Pittmans’ story.
The council listened to the Pittmans’ plea at its March 2 city council meeting and unanimously agreed to ask the city’s planning and zoning committee to consider the two-pet limit.
He said the last time the city reviewed its pet limit, “total chaos” erupted.
“(The meetings) were just packed with people who don’t like cats, people who don’t like dogs, people with young kids,” Wetzel said. “There’s no one consensus.”
“We’re an ag community,” Wetzel said. “We like to talk about our animals.”
Since the March 2 city council meeting, Wetzel said he has fielded emails from both those who are for expanding the pet ordinance and those who are against it.
Most of the emails he has received have come from residents who want the current ordinance to remain in place, he said.
“Everybody has an opinion,” he said. “That’s why it becomes chaos.”
History With Pet Ordinances
Powell is not new to considering rules around pet ownership within its city limits.
He said one of the council’s toughest discussions around pets was a consideration about allowing more than two rabbits per household, as kids were raising them for 4-H projects.
The council passed that ordinance in 2007 amidst contentious discussion.
In January the council completely stripped its exotic pet ordinance following a lawsuit brought by Powell resident Venus Bontadelli, who owns a pygmy teacup goat named Porsche Lane.
Bontadelli had applied for the permit so she could keep her domesticated pygmy teacup goat at her home in a light industrial-zoned neighborhood. The city denied the permit and Bontadelli sued, calling the denial unconstitutional.
As part of the lawsuit’s settlement, the city agreed to allow Bontadelli to keep the goat at her residence in Powell for five years.
“After that, she has to deal with it (the consequences of violating the ordinance),” Wetzel said.
Wetzel made clear that Bontadelli’s case was an isolated, one-time-only agreement.
“We only approved her particular goat in her particular situation,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
By stripping the city’s exotic pet ordinance, Wetzel said the city has removed the ambiguity that brought about the lawsuit.
“No exotic pets are allowed (within city limits), period,” he said. “We went from allowing some exotic pets to no exotic pets.”
Whenever the city considers an ordinance related to animals, it draws the public’s interest.
“We’ve been through almost every animal you can think of,” Wetzel said. “It’s always the same. It packs the house.”
Dogs’ Future
Pittman told Cowboy State Daily he doesn’t know what his family will do if the ordinance isn’t changed or if they are not able to receive an exemption.
He said he would rather euthanize two of his dogs than take them to the local animal shelter.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can tell you we won’t take any to the rescue, because that’s going to be a terrible life for the dogs."
He said none of his family or friends will take the dogs, because they have pets and busy lives of their own.
The city’s planning and zoning commission will discuss the city’s pet limit on March 30. Pittman said he intends to be there.
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
