Enforcing Good Feline Citizenship:
Elements to Include in an Ordinance

Thou Shalt Not Exceed Thy Household's Kitties Limit

They really hate this in the animal rights movement's mainstream, which includes, not insignificantly, some of the nation's most prominent dog and cat shelters. But it seems inescapable for any community that's really serious about shutting down the residential stray-feeding stations which literally mess up entire neighborhoods.

An ordinance ABSOLUTELY SHOULD include a stated limit on the number of cats a residence may lawfully harbor.

A look around at communities that have imposed numerical limits shows a typical range from two to five cats allowed per household. In some ordinances, the cats total is lumped together with dogs, meaning that a person can't harbor a maximum number of both species. The ordinance might allow you to have five cats, for example, but if you already have two dogs, the number of allowed cats falls to three for a combined total of five cats/dogs in your household.

The fact that a certain number of cats is allowed, however, SHOULD NOT absolve any cat owner from responsibility for the conduct of his cats whenever they might be "at large." Any well-constructed ordinance should provide that if a person's cat is spraying, urinating, defecating, fighting, or engaging in other nuisance behavior on someone else's property, the cat's owner is in violation of city code and subject to penalties spelled out in the code.

Here's a list of recommendations from The Catfield Pages on elements your community SHOULD include in its domestic animal control law:

• Maximum number of dogs AND CATS per household. Five seems a reasonable total for the species combined.

• "Public nuisance" behavior of animals clearly and completely defined to include all the crummy things that dogs AND CATS can do to ruin your day (or night) when they enter your premises without permission.

• Prohibition against allowing a female cat or dog to be at large while she's in heat.

• Prohibition against hosting more than one litter of kittens or puppies on one's property in the same calendar year. At specified age (four months is typical), offspring are to be either surrendered to local shelter or retained as permanent pets and counted toward household's allowed maximum of cats/dogs.

It's also important to consider some reasonably strict measures with respect to "catteries" (or "kennels," in the case of dogs). In some towns, a person can simply fork over fifty or a hundred bucks a year for a kennel license which gives the person the go-ahead to increase the number of domestic animals he's harboring. Unfortunately, there are plenty of cat-feeders in the U.S. who would gladly pay the higher license fee if it meant that by so doing, the feeder would be absolved of any responsibility for all the nuisance behavior to which neighbors may be subjected.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S A BETTER WAY!: A few communities have quit treating the kennel/cattery permitting process as a routine over-the-counter transaction. They've moved it to the land use decision-making category, requiring the landowner to APPLY for a CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT. Approval of such an application is at the discretion of the local city council or other governing body, which may be guided by an advisory vote from its local Planning and Zoning Commission. PUBLIC HEARINGS on the application are held at both the P&Z and city council levels, allowing neighbors and other interested citizens to STATE THEIR CONCERNS about the proposed siting of the animal living facility. It is during this phase that neighbors and governing officials can demand all pertinent information about the proposed operation -- learning exactly how many animals are involved, for example, exactly how they will be contained, how much noise and smell is likely to be generated, etc. -- and thereafter all parties concerned -- the applicant, neighbors, and the boards -- can work out solutions to any problems before they arise, and spell these requirements out clearly as CONDITIONS under which the permit may be considered valid. Down the road, any failure of the permit holder to adhere to these attached stipulations is deemed grounds for the city's ordinance officer to issue a citation. Conviction on this code violation can carry a range of possible penalties, not the least of which is the permit's REVOCATION.