Marion, OH Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 618.11 is the cat-specific rule in the Marion Codified Ordinances. Division (A) requires a report to the Health Commissioner within 24 hours whenever a person is bitten by a dog, cat, or other animal. Under division (B), once the Health Commissioner learns that a dog or cat has bitten a person, the animal is quarantined under an order issued by the Health Commissioner, either under the care of its owner or other responsible person or at a pound or kennel. The quarantine continues until the Health Commissioner, an authorized representative, or a veterinarian determines that the animal is not afflicted with rabies, and the period cannot be less than ten days from the date of the bite. All expenses of keeping or impounding the animal and of any tests to determine whether rabies exists fall exclusively on the owner or keeper, and any person who knows an animal has bitten someone must report it. Division (C) bars release from quarantine until the animal is properly vaccinated against rabies: the owner provides acceptable evidence of a current vaccination by a doctor of veterinary medicine, and without it the Health Commissioner can order the vaccination.

Other sections treat cats in specific ways. Section 618.01 defines animal as any and all types, domesticated and wild, so a cat is at large when off its owner's premises and not under immediate control, in a street, road, alley, other public place or on a neighbor's private ground. Section 618.12(B) exempts dogs and cats from the 100-foot enclosure distance for pens, coops and cages, and § 618.18(A) excludes domesticated cats from the exotic animal ban. Section 618.02 bars abandoning a dog, cat or other domestic animal, and § 618.14(B) declares an animal a nuisance when it damages or fouls another person's property.