Charlotte County, FL Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Sec. 1-4-28(a)(1) requires every cat four (4) months of age or older to have a current county animal license, issued only after the cat has been vaccinated against rabies, and that license must be renewed each year on the vaccination anniversary; a missing or expired tag is prima facie evidence the cat isn't licensed or vaccinated. Sec. 1-4-25(n) draws the legal line between an owned, licensable cat and a feral one: a feral cat is an undomesticated feline born in the wild and descended from domesticated pet felines which returned to the wild, was lost or abandoned, and the code lists specific markers, a tattoo or microchip, declawing, grooming, a spay/neuter without a trap-neuter-release ear notch, or social behavior suggesting domestication during a holding period, any one of which means an at-large cat is not treated as feral.

That distinction matters because Sec. 1-4-25(g) expressly excludes feral cats from the ordinary definition of cat used throughout the licensing and at-large provisions. Separately, Sec. 1-4-35 requires the owner of any female cat in heat to keep her in a secure enclosure, such as a building, veterinary hospital, boarding kennel or closed kennel, specifying that a fenced area is not sufficient enclosure unless the cat is being intentionally bred.