Cleveland County, NC Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Cleveland County does not license cats, and the dog-restraint rule under § 3-33(b)(4) names dogs specifically, so a loose cat is not itself a nuisance offense under that subsection. Instead, Code § 3-122 commits the county to a community cat management program run by the animal services director, defined in § 3-1 as addressing any free-roaming, unowned cat living outdoors, whether or not it belongs to a colony or is feral. Community cats brought into the county shelter count toward intake and, once returned to the field, count as a live-release outcome rather than a euthanasia statistic.

Each cat is evaluated for temperament to see if it could be placed for adoption, and animal services attempts to socialize kittens from community cat litters for the adoption program. A community cat is held for the state-mandated minimum holding period, then sterilized, ear-tipped, vaccinated, and returned to the exact point where it was picked up, either by an animal services staff member or through an approved rescue partner; § 3-34(f) confirms that returning a community cat this way is not treated as abandonment. If the department instead determines a specific cat is a nuisance, it is relocated to another suitable outdoor location rather than returned to the original spot. Owned pet cats remain subject to the county's rabies vaccination and cruelty-prevention rules in §§ 3-34 and 3-81 like any other pet.