Brockton, MA Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Chapter 3 of the Brockton code is written almost entirely around dogs; cats appear in only two places. Section 3-3(a) directs the city to implement the Commonwealth's licensing and regulation statute for dogs and kennels, M.G.L. c. 140, Sections 136A-174F, "where applicable" to cats and ferrets, and states that "in the event of any conflict between any part of this ordinance and any provision in sections 136A through 174F of chapter 140 of the General Laws, the provisions of the General Laws shall prevail." Brockton has not written its own cat licensing, at-large, or feral-colony scheme the way it has for dogs under Section 3-5; a cat owner is not required to buy a city tag.

The one place the local code sets its own number for cats is impoundment. Under Section 3-8(d), an owner or keeper of "an impounded or quarantined dog or quarantined cat" must pay an administrative fee of $38, plus $16 for each additional day the animal is held, the same schedule used for dogs. The department of animal control, created by Section 3-0 and supervised by the Brockton Police Department, has the power under Section 3-2 to investigate reported violations of "this chapter," which covers "animals and fowl" generally, not dogs alone. That means the chapter's general provisions, the false-complaint and interference prohibitions in Section 3-25 and the safe-transportation rule in Section 3-26, apply to a cat owner exactly as they apply to a dog owner.