Pet Owners Enraged Over NYC Law Banning Pet Sitting

For pet parents, the hardest part of traveling can often be finding the perfect caretaker to watch over a beloved four-legged child. Lounging on a tropical beach is much more relaxing without the worry that Fido is stuck in a dreary and lonely cage back home.

While there are pet care facilities aplenty in New York City, many travelers opt to use individual pet sitters, both to save money and to ensure their pets are housed in a home-like setting.

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To the shock and anger of many, however, the New York City Health Department is reminding pet owners that these private pet sitters are illegal under New York health regulations. The code prevents anyone not holding a kennel license from boarding, feeding or grooming animals. Kennel licenses cannot be issued to private home according to the New York Daily News.

Specifically, Article 161 of New York’s health code reads, “No animals shall be sold or held for sale, or boarded, groomed or trained in a room in which a person lives.”

The law is not a new one, but it is also not a well-known one and recent fines imposed by the Health Department have put private pet-sitting businesses in jeopardy while enraging pet owners throughout the city.

The issue first came to a head when the health department sent a letter to DogVaycay.com (now owned by Rover) last October telling the company that its NY-based pet sitters were required to show proof they had a license before they could sign up for the app. According to the Daily News, at least two users have been fined since then, with fines starting at $1,000.

Rover, which says it has 9,000 registered pet sitters in New York, is hoping to get the law changed.

“If you’ve got a 14-year-old getting paid to feed your cats, that’s against the law right now,” said Rover’s general counsel John Lapham, in the Daily News article. “Most places right now continue to make it easier to watch children than animals, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

Representatives from the Health Department say the law “ensures the safety of pets and reduces risks to public health.”

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The outrage by city pet owners is not going unnoticed by lawmakers. New York City Council’s Manhattan district Councilmember Corey Johnson (D), who is also the city’s health committee chair, said he was “shocked” to learn about the regulation.

“It’s so crazy,” said Johnson “There are millions of cats and dogs in New York City, and people I think believe they can pet sit or have someone pet sit for them. To have a law on the books that says that’s illegal is antiquated and not practical.”

Johnson has said he will introduce legislation to allow pet sitting.

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