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

City Code § 4-5, titled 'Keeping cats,' sits in Chapter 4, Article I alongside the general animal provisions. It does not require cat licensing or registration, and it does not restrict free-roaming cats the way § 4-1's 'at large' definition applies to dogs elsewhere in the chapter. Instead it defines a nuisance-cat standard with four specific triggers: (1) frequent disturbances at late or early hours or at long intervals; (2) viciousness, defined in the subsection itself as posing a threat to other animals or to human beings; (3) frequent digging into, breaking, or otherwise injuring shrubbery, trees, or lawns, or frequent prowling on property not belonging to the cat's owner; and (4) frequent or habitual depositing of excreta on property not belonging to the cat's owner.

Any one of these four conditions is independently sufficient to make keeping that cat unlawful under the section, the list is not cumulative. The section traces back to Code 1973 § 8-9 and has carried forward essentially unchanged into the current 1992-derived Code numbering. Because Chapter 4 has no separate feral-colony or trap-neuter-release provision, community cat colonies are handled, if at all, under the general nuisance standard here rather than a dedicated municipal TNR ordinance.