Yolo County, CA Animal Ordinances: Cat Rules (2026)

Section 6-1.401 fixes the unincorporated County as the territory where animals may not run at large, then carves out a specific exception: no owner shall permit an animal "wild or domestic, except a domestic cat, to run at large." That clause is why Yolo County has no cat leash law and no at-large citation for a loose cat, unlike the eight-foot leash rule that applies to dogs under § 6-1.401.1. The same cat carve-out repeats in the trespassing and noise sections, §§ 6-1.402 and 6-1.403, both of which bind an owner "except a domestic cat." That does not erase liability.

Section 6-1.420, titled "Cats: Damages or injuries," makes it unlawful for an owner to "permit or suffer such cat to damage property, public or private or real or personal, or to bite, scratch, or claw any human being or other animal which is the property of another." A neighbor whose fence, garden, or pet is harmed by a roaming cat can pursue the owner under this section even though the cat broke no leash or at-large rule. The County's Animal Control Law, adopted as Ordinance 703 effective May 22, 1974, creates no separate cat license and no feral-colony registration program; the dog licensing scheme in Article 6, §§ 6-1.601 through 6-1.615, does not extend to cats. Yolo County Animal Services fields complaints under § 6-1.420 the same way it handles dog complaints.