The municipal ordinances are supposed to take precedence, but my towns zoning officer gave me the go ahead because the state law is obviously written to help Rovers. I talked to Senator Coyne in person, she is a huge Rover supporter.

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I didn't see all the responses to this post. My story had a happy ending. I've been back in business since 9/2018. We argued with zoning about the new state laws for RI, and finally got the all clear. RI Rovers can board without a kennel license, but a max of 4 clients.

Ok, so a few responses, and a huge update.
To Deb, I couldn't turn off boarding until Sunday because I had a stay that was booked until Saturday, and the app wouldn't let me until the stay was complete. Animal control was nice enough to understand I couldn't just send that dog back without the owners being home.
To Lenka, the ordinance is for residential properties. If I had a commercial property, I would be allowed a kennel license. I was told I wouldn't be able to get a kennel license for my residential property, and I do work out of my home. Boarding worked best because I have to be home with my kids, and the other option of house sitting was not a doable thing for me. The super great news is this though. The powers that be for RI have just recently passed and signed into law H7409 and S2510 Sub A. Both state that residential homes are not considered kennels, are now exempt from requiring a kennel license, and for a fee can board up to 4 dogs that do not belong to the proprietor. It was very specifically designed for in home pet care apps and people like Rover. There were a lot of emails to RI Rovers from the support team to write to our senators and get this pushed through, which it did with a unanimous vote from both the Senate and the House. It literally was signed into effect 2 days after animal control showed up at my house, the timing was awful. I'm currently just waiting on a call back from the zoning and animal control officers before I turn my Rover light back on. I should be back in business in a week or so. Thankfully all my clients were devastated by the news of losing me, and have all expressed how they wanted to know the second I was back up and running. Hopefully this won't be a complete waste of a summer despite this week long hiccup. Thanks for all the responses. I'll keep everyone updated as to how it goes with my town's officials.

Here's the kicker, its a new ordinance, just revised last year. It's designed to prevent excessive breeding and puppy mills. People who have four or more dogs in their family have been forced to give dogs up, or move. And sadly no, 99% of my business has come from boarding. It's a huge hit for me.

So the worst thing happened to me yesterday. As I'm boarding 2 dogs, and doing day care for another 3, the police showed up at my house. Apparently one of my neighbor's complained about excessive dog barking. I'd like to point out that it wasn't my dogs that were making the ruckus, it was actually both of my neighbors on either side of me, one who has a vicious dog that attacks the fence daily, and the other side that has a yapper who is upset that he can't play in my yard. Both were going nuts, and I was amazed that not a one of my dogs were even responding to them. They were having a great time and behaving. The kicker in this is that it didn't matter to the animal control officers, they saw that I had more than 3 dogs on my property, so the complaint was landing on me. Providence and East Providence recently put out a revised ordinance saying that it is unlawful for homeowners to have more than 3 dogs on their property. The only way around this would be to get a breeder permit, or a kennel license, which I was told I would not be able to get because they're reserved for commercial properties, and not residential areas. I own 3 of my own, so basically they're telling me I can no longer do Rover in the capacity that I have been doing for the last 9 months. I've built up quite a client base, and I'm completely devastated by this because I love my work. I had to cancel all my summer bookings, and took a huge hit in my Rover score because of this. Basically I'm looking for any suggestions. My family and I already considering a possible move to get us out of this predicament, but wanted to hear what everyone else has to say, and hopefully get the word out for any of my local fellow Rovers.