Guilford County exempts cats from the leash/restraint law, so cats may roam. Cats over four months old must still be vaccinated against rabies, and nuisance and cruelty rules apply to cat owners.
The running-at-large ordinance (Sec. 5-9) expressly excludes cats, so unincorporated Guilford County has no cat leash or confinement requirement. Cats are, however, covered by the county's rabies-control article and North Carolina law: every owned cat over four months of age must be currently vaccinated against rabies. Cats causing a nuisance or found sick may be handled by Animal Services, and cruelty/abandonment rules apply. Feral-cat colonies are managed through community programs rather than a leash mandate. Cities like Greensboro may set their own cat provisions inside city limits.
Failure to vaccinate a cat against rabies violates state law (NC Gen. Stat. 130A-185) and the county rabies article, subject to citation; nuisance cats may be impounded.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how Guilford County's cat rules rules stack up against other locations.
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