Waukegan, IL Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)
Key Facts
- Registration required
- TNR program approved by chief of police
- TNR steps
- Trap, neuter/spay, microchip, vaccinate, return
- Colony seizure authority
- Chief of police, humane removal
- Seizure costs
- Billed to the caretaker
- Governing section
- Sec. 4-49
Summary
Waukegan lets residents manage feral cat colonies but only through a registered trap-neuter-return program. Sec. 4-49 requires any caretaker feeding or maintaining a feral colony to register with a TNR program the chief of police approves, and the city can still trap and remove colonies it decides to stabilize.
TNR program means a trap, neuter and return program pursuant to which feral and stray cats are trapped, neutered or spayed, micro-chipped, vaccinated against rabies, and returned to the location where they were found. (b)A person or organization wishing to act as a feral cat colony caretaker for feral cats in the city must register with a TNR program approved by the chief of police or his/her designee.(c)Feral cat colony seizure. The chief of police or his/her designee, in order to encourage the stabilization of the feral cat population in the city, shall have the right to trap in a humane manner and remove any feral cats or feral cat colonies. All costs incurred by the city as a result of a seizure shall be the responsibility of the caretaker.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 113).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 4-49 defines a feral cat as one born in the wild, the unsocialized offspring of an owned or feral cat, or a formerly owned cat abandoned long enough to lose its socialization, and a feral cat colony as any group of cats, feral or not, that regularly congregates as a unit. Anyone who wants to act as a feral cat colony caretaker in Waukegan must register with a TNR program approved by the chief of police or his or her designee; TNR is defined in the same section as trapping, neutering or spaying, micro-chipping, rabies vaccination and returning cats to where they were found.
Registration does not immunize a colony from removal: subsection (c) gives the chief of police the right to trap in a humane manner and remove any feral cats or entire colonies in order to encourage stabilization of the city's feral cat population, and it puts all costs of that seizure on the caretaker, not the city. Waukegan's broader at-large rules in Sec. 4-41 still apply to owned cats, and Sec. 4-44 requires any cat four months or older to carry a current rabies tag, so a colony caretaker running an approved TNR program should expect the rabies-vaccination step to double as compliance with the separate inoculation requirement.
Violations & Fines
There is no set fine for operating a colony outside an approved TNR program in the text of Sec. 4-49 itself; the exposure is the seizure power in subsection (c), which lets the chief of police trap and remove an unregistered or destabilizing colony and bill the caretaker for every cost of that removal, with no fine cap stated in the section.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I legally care for a feral cat colony in Waukegan?
Can the city remove a feral colony even if I'm registered?
Do feral cats still need rabies vaccination under a TNR program?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Waukegan
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