Baytown, TX Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Sec. 14-183(a) makes it an offense for the owner of an outdoor cat to keep it unsterilized; defenses under subsection (b) include a cat under four months old, a veterinarian's annual certification that spaying/neutering would harm the cat's health or that it's already sterile, a cat held for adoption by animal services or a welfare group, a cat certified annually as a competition animal, or proof the cat was sterilized by the time of the court date or within 20 days after a citation issued.

Article VIII's community cat program, Sec. 14-181, treats an ear-tipped, sterilized, vaccinated community cat as unowned: the animal services division must return it immediately to where it was trapped unless it's a nuisance, and its return after sterilization isn't considered abandonment under any statute. Sec. 14-182 handles nuisance community cats in three steps: the first nuisance finding gets the cat microchipped and returned to its colony, the second gets it relocated to a different colony, and the third and later findings let the division relocate it again or euthanize it at the director's discretion.