Amarillo, TX Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

The City of Amarillo's animal code does not impose a blanket spay-or-neuter mandate on dog and cat owners. What it does is price the difference at the pound. Under Sec. 8-2-4(a)(1), the Animal Management & Welfare Department charges $50 to redeem an intact animal that has been impounded versus $30 for one that is already spayed or neutered, and livestock owners pay double those rates per head under Sec. 8-2-4(a)(2). An owner who pays the higher intact-animal fee can recover the $20 difference by presenting proof the animal was sterilized within 60 days of reclaiming it, though that refund has no bearing on any citation already issued for the underlying at-large violation.

Separately, Sec. 8-2-54(b) bars the department from redeeming, transferring, or adopting out any domestic or miniature animal over three months old that lacks a microchip or current rabies vaccination, tying release to the same recordkeeping the sterilization discount depends on. The one true mandate in the chapter targets a narrower group: Sec. 8-2-5(b) requires that miniature pigs kept as household pets, capped at two per household with no litters, be spayed or neutered by three months of age, and bars keeping an adult male miniature pig unless its tusks have been surgically removed. There is no equivalent age-based sterilization deadline for dogs or cats generally; the fee schedule is the only lever the ordinance applies to them.