Port St. Lucie, FL Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 92.19 authorizes trap, neuter, vaccinate, and return (TNVR) programs for community cats in Port St. Lucie and sets the rules caregivers have to follow. A community cat, defined in Section 92.01, is a feral or free-roaming cat that has been sterilized, rabies-vaccinated, ear-tipped and microchipped for identification, and returned to the field, where one or more caregivers look after it without owning it outright. Once a cat qualifies, Section 92.19(b) exempts it from six other sections of Chapter 92, including the general keeping restrictions of Section 92.03, the noisy-animal rule in 92.09, and the licensing requirement in Section 92.40, so a properly managed colony cat isn't cited as an unlicensed or at-large animal.

The section imposes real conditions in exchange for that exemption. Cats must go back to the exact location they were trapped and can never be released somewhere else. Caregivers have to provide food and water on a regular basis, at least once a day, and can't dump excess food on the ground or leave it out longer than three hours in a 24-hour period, since that attracts wildlife. Care can only happen on property the caregiver owns or has the written permission of the owner to use, including public land, and caregivers are expected to make reasonable efforts to remove kittens young enough to be socialized and adopted. If an impounded cat is too sick or injured to be returned, transferred to a rescue, or fostered, the section allows humane euthanasia. Returning a cat to its trapping site under this program is explicitly not treated as abandonment, closing off what would otherwise be a Chapter 92 violation.