Greensboro, NC Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 5-3(a) sets the baseline rule for every animal owner in the city: it is unlawful to allow any animal, cats included, to create a nuisance or public danger by running at large, and owners must take whatever measures are reasonably necessary to keep the animal on their premises or under control off of it. Animal control officers and law enforcement officers are directed to pick up any domesticated animal, including cats and fowl, found running at large and deliver it to the county animal shelter.

Subsection (a)(1), titled "Restraint of animals," then narrows the mandatory-restraint piece of that rule: it is unlawful for an owner to keep "any animal, excluding cats" on or off the premises unless it is under sufficient physical restraint, meaning a leash, bridle, cage or similar device, confinement in a vehicle, or containment behind a fence or other secure enclosure. That restraint duty is expressly subject to Section 5-14 of the county animal ordinance, which the city adopted by reference in Section 5-2. An owner who instead relies on an invisible fence system must post a visible, permanent sign on the premises stating that an invisible fence is in use.

Because cats are carved out of subsection (a)(1) by name, a free-roaming cat that is not disturbing anyone is not a restraint violation, even though the general at-large nuisance ban in subsection (a) still reaches a cat that is genuinely creating a nuisance or public danger.