McCracken County, KY Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

County Code § 50.01 defines CAT as any feline three months of age or older for which a USDA-approved rabies vaccine exists, but the chapter's licensing section, § 50.03, is titled "Licensing and registration of dogs" and imposes no parallel license or tag requirement on cats. Rabies vaccination, however, is not breed- or species-limited: § 50.04(A) requires "all animals" to be vaccinated as required by KRS Chapter 258, and § 50.04(B) specifically requires any dog, cat or ferret reclaimed or adopted from the county animal shelter to carry a valid rabies vaccination.

Because § 50.06's control provisions apply to "any animal," a cat that is permitted to run at large violates § 50.06(A) the same as a dog, and a cat that molests passers-by, damages property, makes excessive noise or otherwise meets the § 50.01 PUBLIC NUISANCE definition violates § 50.06(C)'s ban on possessing a nuisance animal. The code contains no separate feral-cat-colony provision; a colony of unowned cats would fall under the general STRAY and RUNNING AT LARGE definitions in § 50.01 rather than a dedicated feral-cat ordinance. Animal Control enforces these rules in unincorporated McCracken County only, not inside Paducah's separate city limits.