Burleson, TX Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

The Burleson City Council wrote two separate at-large tests into Chapter 6 of the Code of Ordinances. For dogs and other animals, § 6-1 asks whether the animal is confined to the owner's premises or restrained. For cats the code uses its own term, AT LARGE CAT: a cat that is off its owner's premises and not secured within a vehicle or restrained by a crate, carrier, leash, or other physical apparatus. A cat that walks onto a neighbor's lot is deemed at large even if the owner never saw it leave.

The owner is the person charged. Section 6-10(a) makes the owner of any animal guilty of an offense if the animal is at large, with no culpable mental state required, and it adds an irrebuttable presumption that an animal at large got out with the permission of its owner or harborer. Section 6-10(c) authorizes the animal control authority, which is the animal services division of the City of Burleson, to impound any animal at large. Under § 6-11(b), a person whose property a cat enters can confine it in a humane manner until animal control is notified.

Registration is a separate duty. The § 6-1 definition of REGISTRATION requires all dogs and cats to be registered annually with the City of Burleson, all relevant fees paid, and a city-issued tag worn. Section 6-2 adds rabies rules: the owner must keep a cat currently vaccinated, a new resident must comply within ten days after moving into Burleson, and the cat must wear a collar or harness carrying the metal tag at all times. Under the CURRENTLY VACCINATED definition the first shot comes before four months of age, a booster follows within 12 months, and revaccination then runs every 12 months for a one-year dose or every 36 months for a three-year dose.

Two more cat-specific rules sit nearby. An unspayed female cat in heat must be confined in a house, building, or secure enclosure (§ 6-10(b)), and a residence cannot harbor more than four adult cats under § 6-6(a), where an adult cat is one four months of age or older. Cats adopted from the Burleson Animal Shelter are sterilized when eight weeks or older or two pounds or more, and are microchipped (§ 6-11).