Dearborn Heights, MI Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

City Code Sec. 6-97(b) provides that any unapproved feeding of a feral or stray cat or dog is unlawful, by any means, including hand feeding or setting out food regardless of whether that food is attended or left unattended. The ordinance places approval authority with the director of animal control/ordinance, meaning a resident or colony caretaker who wants to legally feed feral cats in Dearborn Heights must first get that feeding reviewed and approved through the city's animal control program rather than doing it independently.

This sits alongside the city's separate licensing article, which requires a license from the city clerk for any owned or harbored animal under Sec. 6-121, and its running-at-large rule under Sec. 6-94, so an unapproved feral-cat feeding station can expose a caretaker to a civil infraction even where no ownership or harboring is claimed. The provision was enacted by Ord. No. H-94-4 in June 1994 and amended by Ord. No. H-23-02 in May 2023, indicating the city revisited its feral animal feeding policy roughly three decades later, likely in response to ongoing neighborhood complaints about unmanaged stray feeding sites.