Forsyth County, GA Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 14-31(f) states that free-roaming community cats and feral cats are not considered to be at large and will not be impounded unless they show signs of injury or illness, carving cats out of the general running-at-large prohibition that otherwise applies to all animals off their owner's property. Section 14-40 then builds out the county's community cat program: trapping is permitted solely to sterilize, vaccinate for rabies, and ear-tip community cats under a licensed veterinarian's supervision, and any ear-tipped cat taken in by local shelters must be returned to the location where it was trapped within Forsyth County's jurisdictional limits unless it needs veterinary care.

Community cat caregivers may reclaim impounded community cats without proving ownership, solely to carry out trap-neuter-return or return an ear-tipped cat to its territory, and a person who returns a cat under this program is not deemed to have abandoned it. The ordinance directs the animal services division and its contracted shelter to treat trap-neuter-return as the preferred disposition for impounded community cats and to actively direct such cats into a TNR program rather than default to euthanasia. 00 fee under section 14-104, and community cats returned through the TNR program are exempt from separate licensing enforcement while at large.