Hutto, TX Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 4.09.002 gives cats a narrower set of rules than dogs. Subsection (a) exempts cats from any leash requirement in the city, but it remains unlawful for an owner to allow a cat to stray onto property other than the owner's; a straying cat is deemed a public nuisance and can be impounded by an animal control officer. The section carries two affirmative defenses: one applies where the cat is a stray or feral cat released under a city-approved trap-neuter-return (TNR) program, and a second applies where the person released a previously trapped wild-living creature under state wildlife law.

Subsection (b) defines a TNR release to require that the cat be trapped, evaluated by a veterinarian, vaccinated if unvaccinated, sterilized if unsterilized, ear-notched or otherwise marked, and returned to the location it was trapped, with "veterinarian" given the meaning used in section 801.002 of the Texas Occupations Code. Section 4.09.001 separately makes it an affirmative defense to the general at-large prohibition that the animal was a feral cat in an approved TNR program, defining a feral cat as any homeless, wild or untamed cat.

Cats over four months old must still carry a current license under article 4.08, though section 4.08.009 exempts cats, unlike dogs, from having to wear the license tag. A cat kept indoors that never strays onto a neighbor's property is not in violation of section 4.09.002.