Pima County, AZ Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

180 covers disposition of any animal, forfeited, abandoned, ownerless or unclaimed, that the county enforcement agent must deal with. Under subsection A, such an animal may be placed for adoption in a suitable home, humanely destroyed, or transferred to a duly incorporated humane society or nonprofit animal-welfare organization; transferred animals must then be adopted out after sterilization, humanely destroyed, or released through a community cat program. Subsection C is the operative cat-specific definition: a "community cat program" means healthy, free-roaming cats are humanely trapped, sterilized, vaccinated against rabies, ear-tipped, and returned to the location where they were found, the standard trap-neuter-return model used for unowned or feral colonies.

Subsection B places conditions on any rescue group that wants to receive county animals: PACC must verify the organization is genuinely engaged in animal welfare work, does not breed or release unsterilized animals, places animals only through community cat programs or sterilized adoption, and complies with this section and the rest of Title 6. PACC backs that up with announced and unannounced inspections of the organization's facilities and records, and can repossess animals from any group that falls out of compliance or whose personnel violate a cruelty law; a receiving organization must agree in writing to these terms. 070, Title 6 imposes no parallel individual licensing or leash/at-large mandate on pet cats.