Tallahassee, FL Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 4-101 lets the mayor proclaim a quarantine whenever there is a danger of rabies or another communicable disease spreading, working with the county health officer; the proclamation runs in a local newspaper and takes effect 24 hours after publication, and it requires every dog and cat on private premises to be confined so it cannot contact another animal or person. Section 4-102 then makes it unlawful for an owner to let a dog or cat out of that confinement during the quarantine, and separately makes it unlawful for any dog or cat to be found running at large, on public or private property, unconfined during the quarantine period; during that window, any sworn law enforcement officer is authorized to kill a dog or cat found running at large or not effectively confined.

Outside of a declared quarantine, cats get specific relief from the general animal at-large rule in Section 4-103. Subsection (e)(4) exempts an owned cat from the at-large restriction once it has been spayed or neutered, implanted with a microchip for permanent identification, and is otherwise in compliance with the chapter. Subsection (e)(5) separately exempts ear-tipped community cats, meaning unowned free-roaming cats sterilized and rabies-vaccinated as part of a trap-neuter-return effort and marked with the quarter-inch ear notch defined in Section 4-2. A community cat without that identifiable ear tip, or a currently registered microchip, rabies tag or private ID tag, is treated as unowned and is eligible for impoundment like any other stray.