Oxnard, CA Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

Oxnard Code of Ordinances Sec. 5-64, "Cat Sterilization Required," is blunt: no person owning a cat may allow that cat outdoor access unless it has been surgically sterilized. There is no age exemption, no breeder carve-out, and no permit path around it printed in the section itself; the only condition the code sets is the sterilization requirement tied directly to outdoor access. The rule sits in Chapter 5's dog and cat licensing article, right after the city's separate dog and cat licensing sections (Secs. 5-56 through 5-63), which require every dog and cat over four months old to be licensed through the poundmaster and license collector with a current rabies vaccination on file.

Sec. 5-59 does carve out a companion break for altered cats used in veterinary practice: a cat license is issued free of charge if the cat is owned by a state-licensed veterinarian and kept on the premises used for that practice, but that exemption is about the license fee, not the sterilization duty in Sec. 5-64. Enforcement runs through the animal control division of the crime protection program, the same office that inspects dog kennels under Sec. 5-68 and issues license tags under Sec. 5-61.

Violations of Sec. 5-64 are charged as infractions rather than misdemeanors, putting the fine on the citywide infraction schedule in Sec. 1-10 rather than the general $1,000/six-month misdemeanor track that applies when the city attorney elects to prosecute other code violations at that level.