Kern County, CA Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)
Key Facts
- Cat licensing
- No license, tag, or fee required
- Dog licensing
- Required over 4 months (§7.08.020)
- Feral caretaker status
- Excluded from "owner" (§7.08.015(V))
- Owner threshold
- Attaches after 15 consecutive days of care
- Cat breeding business
- Counts as commercial animal facility (§7.08.015(K))
Summary
Kern County Code Chapter 7.08 requires every dog over four months old to be licensed, tagged, and vaccinated, but the same chapter never imposes a license, tag, or fee on cats. Section 7.08.015(V) goes further, excluding "feral cat caretakers" from the legal definition of "owner," so residents who feed community cats are not automatically treated as the animal's legal keeper.
V."Owner" of an animal means any person who owns, possesses, controls, keeps, cares for, harbors, or has custody of the animal for fifteen (15) or more consecutive days, except feral cat caretakers, a veterinarian, or an operator of a grooming shop, commercial animal facility, or a pet shop engaged in the regular practice of this business as such. ... M."Cat, feral" is a cat without owner identification of any kind whose usual and consistent temperament is extreme fear and resistance to contact with people. A feral cat is unsocialized to people.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 59 Update 1).
Full Breakdown
Kern's animal control chapter builds its entire licensing scheme, Sections 7.08.020 through 7.08.050, around dogs: an owner must license a dog over four months old, pay a fee set by the board of supervisors, and attach a tag stamped "Kern County." No parallel section requires a cat license, tag, or fee anywhere in Chapter 7.08. The chapter does regulate cats in other ways: Section 7.08.015(L) defines "cat" as a domesticated feline, and Section 7.08.015(M) separately defines "cat, feral" as one "without owner identification of any kind whose usual and consistent temperament is extreme fear and resistance to contact with people." Section 7.08.015(V) then carves feral cat caretakers, veterinarians, groomers, and commercial-facility operators out of the general "owner" definition, which otherwise attaches to anyone who possesses or cares for an animal fifteen or more consecutive days.
Because Section 7.08.150's at-large prohibition is written to reach only "the owner of any dog," Kern has no leash or confinement law for cats either. Cat breeding is not exempt from all regulation, however: Section 7.08.015(K) folds any operation that breeds more than one litter of cats per year for sale, hire, or training into the "commercial animal facility" category, which triggers the annual permit and inspection scheme in Section 7.08.040 regardless of whether any individual cat is ever licensed.
Violations & Fines
There is no delinquency fee or citation for an unlicensed cat because the licensing chapter never creates one. But once a person's care of a cat exceeds fifteen consecutive days and no feral-caretaker exception applies, Section 7.08.015(V) makes that person the cat's legal "owner," subject to the animal-care standards in Section 7.08.110. Failing to meet those standards lets the director order the animals removed under Section 7.08.120(B), and Section 7.08.120(C) makes noncompliance with that order an infraction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to license my cat in unincorporated Kern County?
Can I feed a feral cat colony without becoming its legal owner?
What if I keep a stray cat at my home for several weeks?
Does breeding cats require a county permit?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Kern County
California rules heatmap·Compare Kern County to another location·View the California animal ordinances overview
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