Kenton County, KY Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

Section 90.11 of the Kenton County Code, titled Adoption and Mandatory Spay/Neuter, governs animals leaving the county's own shelter, not the general pet-owning public. Division (A) requires anyone adopting an animal from Animal Services to complete an application assessing the applicant's ability to care for the animal, and bars anyone who has already received a uniform citation for inhumane treatment of animals from adopting at all. Division (B) makes clear Animal Services is never obligated to sell or transfer any animal in its custody, so an application can be denied outright. Division (C) is the operative spay/neuter command: 'All dogs and cats adopted from the Animal Shelter must be surgically altered to prevent breeding.' Division (D) leaves the adoption fee to be set annually by the Director of Animal Services with Fiscal Court approval, so the fee itself is not fixed in the code.

The penalty table at § 90.99(A)(3) still labels a violation of § 90.11 as 'failing to comply with mandatory spay/neuter requirements' and fines it $25 to $100 for a first offense and $50 to $250 after that, but because the underlying duty in § 90.11(C) is triggered by adopting from the shelter, an owner whose pet was acquired another way, purchased from a breeder, received as a gift, or already owned before this ordinance, is not covered by this section. Kenton County has no general spay/neuter mandate reaching every dog or cat owner in the unincorporated county; the broader push toward sterilization runs instead through the county's Trap-Neuter-Return program for community cats under § 90.17, which is voluntary for caretakers rather than compulsory.