Dane County, WI Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing law
- Dane County Code ch. 47.17(3)-(4)
- Applies to
- Cats in residential-zoned areas
- Required tag info
- Owner name, address, phone
- Cat license required?
- No, only dogs are licensed
- First-offense forfeiture
- $25.00-$100.00
Summary
Dane County does not license cats the way it licenses dogs, but ch. 47.17(3)-(4) requires cats kept in residentially zoned areas to wear an identification tag with the owner's name, address and phone number whenever they are outdoors. Cats outside a residential district, and dogs statewide, follow a separate untagged standard.
(3) An owner of a dog or cat shall not permit, whether negligently or otherwise, the dog or cat to be untagged. A dog is untagged if a valid license tag is not attached to a collar which is kept on the dog whenever the dog is outdoors. A cat is untagged if an identification tag listing the name, address and phone number of the owner is not attached to a collar which is kept on the cat whenever the cat is outdoors. (4) Sub. (3) shall only apply to cats owned by an individual residing in an area zoned as a residential district under secs. 10.05 - 10.08 inclusive.
Full Breakdown
17(3) makes it unlawful for an owner to permit a dog or cat to be untagged. A dog is untagged if a valid license tag is not attached to a collar kept on the dog whenever it is outdoors; a cat is untagged if an identification tag listing the owner's name, address and phone number is not attached to a collar kept on the cat whenever it is outdoors. Subsection (4) limits the cat-tagging duty specifically: it applies only to cats owned by a person residing in an area zoned as a residential district under secs.
08 of the county zoning code, meaning cats kept on agricultural or other non-residentially zoned county land are not subject to this tagging requirement. Dane County has no separate feral-colony, trap-neuter-return, or cat-licensing ordinance anywhere in Chapter 47; free-roaming cats are addressed only through this identification-tag duty and the general at-large control provisions of sec. 17(1)-(2), which bar letting any animal, cat included, run loose off its owner's property unsupervised. The chapter is administered by the Department of Public Health for Madison and Dane County and, per sec.
05, does not apply in a village or town that already has both a municipal court and a more restrictive animal control ordinance of its own.
Violations & Fines
Allowing a dog or cat to go untagged under ch. 47.17(3) forfeits not less than $25.00 nor more than $100.00 for a first offense, and not less than $50.00 nor more than $200.00 for each subsequent offense, under ch. 47.51(9). Each day the violation continues is treated as a separate offense under ch. 47.52, and the corporation counsel's office prosecutes violations under sec. 47.04(2).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Dane County require a cat license like it does for dogs?
Which cats actually have to wear an ID tag under this rule?
What information has to be on a cat's outdoor tag?
Does Dane County have a feral cat or trap-neuter-return program?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Dane County
Compare Dane County to another location·View the Wisconsin animal ordinances overview
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