Tuscaloosa, AL Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Sec. 4-14, added by Ord. No. 8017, Sec. ' Any animal welfare organization can apply by written letter to become a city-approved 'sponsor,' and sponsors are responsible for registering colonies, tracking vaccination and sterilization records, and reporting annually to the city on colony counts and sterilization numbers. The person actually feeding and managing a colony is the 'caretaker,' who must register the colony with a sponsor, make reasonable efforts to trap every cat in it for sterilization, rabies vaccination and eartipping by a licensed veterinarian, keep records, and provide food, water and shelter.

A caretaker in compliance is exempt from the city's other cat ordinances, including the three-cat limit in Sec. 4-13, so a registered colony of many more than three cats is lawful. Unregistered colonies get a grace period: if animal control finds one, the caretaker gets written notice and thirty days to register before any cat can be removed for causing a nuisance. If a registered colony does cause a documented nuisance, the sponsor gets sixty days' written notice to cure it before an animal control officer may remove the offending cats.

Separately, Sec. 4-12 requires every owner, controller or maintainer of a cat or dog in the city to prevent the animal from damaging property, habitually chasing or attacking people or other animals, or creating an unsanitary or odor-producing nuisance condition, and both provisions are enforced by the same animal control officers under Sec. 4-3.