Bayonne, NJ Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

Rather than a blanket spay-or-neuter mandate, Bayonne's Chapter 5 uses financial and behavioral levers tied to sterilization status. Section 5-2.5 sets the dog license fee at $15 per dog but adds an extra $5 for any dog of reproductive age that has not been sterilized, the same structure applied to cats under § 5-11.5, so an owner who neuters or spays a pet avoids the surcharge every renewal cycle. For domesticated cats specifically, § 5-27.3, part of the Trap-Neuter-Return Program article added by Ord. No.

O-22-30, lists owner responsibilities that include not permitting a sexually intact, unspayed or unneutered domesticated cat to roam unsupervised, alongside duties to provide adequate food, water and shelter under N.J.S.A. 4:22-26 and to guard against the cat becoming a nuisance. The same article requires that before any feral cat trapped through the city's TNR program is returned to where it was found or released to a caregiver, it must be spayed or neutered and ear-tipped while under anesthesia by a licensed veterinarian and vaccinated against rabies, per § 5-27.4e.

Feral cats that meet the article's requirements are then exempt from the standard Article IV cat-licensing scheme, effectively trading licensing for sterilization and ear-tip identification.