Lafayette, IN Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Chapter 10.09 of the Lafayette Municipal Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 2024-34 on September 3, 2024, defines a "community cat" as any free-roaming cat or cat found at large, other than a cat whose owner can be readily determined by microchip, collar, or other information and which is not ordinarily permitted to roam outside its owner's residence. Section 10.09.010(B) presumes a cat found at large is a community cat unless its owner can be readily identified and the owner arranges to recover the cat within twenty-four hours of being contacted by Animal Control, the Shelter Manager, or a designee.

Anyone who finds a community cat may deliver it to the shelter, but the finder must disclose where the cat was found, and the shelter will not accept cats found outside the city, per subsection (D). Under subsection (F), the shelter may have a community cat sterilized, vaccinated against rabies, microchipped, ear-tipped for identification, and returned to where it was found, and a person who returns or shelters a community cat under this chapter is not treated as its "owner" and commits no violation of Title 10, per subsection (H).

Separately, Chapter 10.04, "Identification of Dogs and Cats Required," obligates every person who owns a dog or cat in the city to ensure it bears identification at all times under § 10.04.010, so a lost or stolen pet's owner can be found quickly; Lafayette repealed its prior cat and dog registration and licensing-fee system in 2021 under Ordinance No. 2021-27.