Rapides Parish, LA Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 6-1 of the parish animal code defines a community cat as any domestic cat without indication of ownership that lives primarily outside. Under the trap-neuter-return policy in subsection (b), a community cat is eligible for return to the location where it was found instead of being held under the parish's normal stray-hold period, so long as it is sterilized, ear-tipped, and vaccinated for rabies. If a community cat that already carries an ear tip is picked up, it must be returned immediately to where it was found unless it needs veterinary care, and community cats cannot be impounded for any other reason.

00 for each day it stays impounded. If nobody claims an owned cat within that window, subsection (d) lets the parish adopt it out to a willing individual, transfer it to another shelter or rescue organization, or sterilize it, ear-tip it, vaccinate it for rabies, and return it to where it was trapped, effectively converting an unclaimed owned cat into managed community-cat status rather than euthanizing it by default. The rule was most recently amended by an ordinance of October 9, 2023, replacing an older stray-holding scheme dating to 1986 with the current TNR-based approach.

Animal Control, operating under the parish's general impounding authority, administers pickups and returns parishwide outside the incorporated municipalities of Alexandria, Pineville, and the parish's smaller towns, which run their own animal ordinances.