POWELL — A family in Powell, Wyo., is asking city officials to loosen a two-decade-old ordinance that limits households to two pets.
The debate is dividing the community, with supporters arguing responsible owners deserve flexibility and opponents saying the law keeps the peace.
Watch Chris Pittman talk about the situation:
Chris Pittman and his family moved from Texas to Wyoming with their four dogs in September 2025, hoping to be closer to his father.
"Before we could move here, he passed away. So, and that was in Basin. And so we found this house in Powell," Pittman said Wednesday.
The family faced a challenge after their first night in their new home.
"The first night we stayed here, we all, next morning woke up, went to work, and got a call from my kids at lunchtime saying there's a note on the door from the code enforcer officer," Pittman said.
"I called him, and he said, 'You're only allowed to have two dogs,'" Pittman said. "As a dad, which one of your children do you say, you know what, you have to get rid of your dog. Go ahead and hate me now. So I'm not going to do that."
Instead, the family started looking for solutions.
"We told them we had worked to put a fence up. And I went and I talked to the neighbors to let them know, 'Hey, you know, we're trying. We're figuring it out,'" Pittman said.
Powell City Councilman Troy Bray acknowledged the frustrations surrounding the rule.
"Nobody wants to give their dogs to the dog pound, or you know, or take them out in a prairie and shoot em' whatever," Bray said.
Nevertheless, the ordinance stands.
"It's on the books so if somebody, if somebody calls, then our police have to go out and look, and if they have to enforce it, they have to enforce it," Bray said.
The city previously allowed exotic pet permits until a lawsuit over a baby goat ended the policy.
"Until the goat came along, we had an exotic pet permit, so you could ask permission to have some other type of pet. And because of the lawsuit over the goat, that was that, the council repealed that," Bray said.
Bray said that there is a better way to move forward.
"We shouldn't have to have a judge settle our differences here. I think I think a community like Powell can probably manage to work our differences out without involving outsiders," Bray said.
The Pittmans are now pushing to change the ordinance, hoping the city will reconsider the rule after two decades.
"I'm hoping that they say, you know what, 20 years, let's review the laws and, you know, allow people to have more than two adult pets," Pittman said.
Bray supports the idea of eliminating the restrictions entirely.
"I'd like to see even more than raising the limit to four. I'd like to see him just get rid of the pet limits altogether," Bray said.
