Baytown, TX Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Sec. 14-184(a) bars any person from feeding, or placing food with the intent to feed, stray animals, expressly including stray cats or unregistered community cats. Subsection (b) goes further, barring anyone from leaving, storing, or maintaining food of any kind in a manner or place accessible to stray animals, again including stray or community cats. Subsection (c) exempts only four situations: animal control or police officers acting in their official duties; approved zoological parks, licensed circuses, and government-owned or school-owned exhibits so long as any wildlife is kept securely and lawfully; a person using food as bait to legally live-trap a wild or stray animal under a valid permit; and an authorized community cat caregiver feeding registered community cats, or using food to trap them, as part of the city's trap-neuter-return program under Sec.

14-181. Outside those four exceptions, leaving pet food, table scraps, or bait out where it draws in deer, raccoons, feral hogs, geese, or unregistered strays is squarely covered by the ban.