Lawton, OK Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

Section 5-1-105 states the city council's purpose is to reduce the number of stray dogs and cats euthanized every year, and it enforces that goal by requiring every dog or cat six months or older to be altered unless its owner has registered it as intact under the "B" license created by Section 5-5-501. Anyone who intentionally feeds or shelters a dog or cat for ten days or more is deemed its owner and must comply with the same requirement. Four narrow exceptions apply: dogs actively used by law enforcement or search-and-rescue agencies, animals held at the city shelter or a veterinary hospital, and intact animals whose owner holds a current "B" license along with a veterinarian's certification that surgery would endanger the animal's life; those medically exempt animals are still barred from being bred or allowed to reproduce.

Owners cited for keeping an unaltered animal without a "B" license can get the citation dismissed, apart from court costs, by proving compliance with the spay/neuter requirement within fourteen calendar days of the summons or by their arraignment date, whichever comes first. The same sterilization mandate reappears at the point of adoption: Section 5-1-119 requires every dog or cat leaving the city shelter to already be altered, or the new owner must sign a sterilization agreement and post a deposit, with the surgery due within two weeks of adoption or of the animal turning six months old. A veterinarian's written statement that surgery would endanger the animal's life buys the owner a thirty-day extension, renewable with further veterinary documentation.