Piscataway, NJ Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 5-16.1 requires every cat of licensing age, meaning seven months old or one with a full set of permanent teeth under Section 5-1, to be vaccinated against rabies by a licensed veterinarian and licensed with the Township before it can be lawfully kept. Turning to conduct in public, Section 5-18.2 makes it unlawful for an owner to permit a cat of licensing age to run at large anywhere in the Township. Section 5-18.4 gives an authorized agent, which includes the Health Officer, a Police Officer or the Animal Control Officer, the power to take a cat into custody, impound it, and later destroy it, return it to its owner, or offer it for adoption whenever the cat's owner cannot produce a current license and registration tag, or the cat is suspected to be a stray, abandoned, diseased, injured, or to have bitten a person or another animal under N.J.S.A.

26:4-82. Reclaiming a cat that has been impounded or boarded by the Township is not free: Section 5-18.6 charges the owner $50 for each day the cat was held. Because Section 5-16 and Section 5-18 do not set their own fines for these violations, a Municipal Court prosecutes them under the Township's general penalty in Chapter 1, Section 1-5, in addition to the daily impoundment fee.