Houston County, GA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Sec. 10-26 of the Houston County, Georgia Code of Ordinances (General Code, Chapter 10, Unified Animal Control Ordinance) targets colony-style or habitual feeding of stray and feral cats once it crosses into a nuisance. The provision does not ban putting out food for a cat outright; it is triggered when the feeding "causes a nuisance to neighbors or businesses, or creates a condition contrary to the health, safety and welfare of the community," language taken directly from the section. That threshold lets animal control weigh complaints about odor, accumulated waste, rodent attraction or repeated trespass by fed cats before issuing a citation.

The section sits among a cluster of nuisance-animal rules added by the June 20, 2017 amendment to Chapter 10, alongside Sec. 10-22's tethering ban, Sec. 10-24's aggressive-dog-training rule and Sec. 10-25's 24-hour dead-animal removal duty, all enforced by the county's animal control officers under the same article. Chapter 10 separately caps ownership at three dogs and three cats per residential lot under Sec. 10-19, with a waiver process before the board of commissioners under Sec. 10-20 for licensed rescues, breeders or therapeutic-use situations. Because Sec.

10-26 carries no penalty of its own, a violation falls back to the Code's general penalty clause, Sec. 1-11, which applies whenever an act is "prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful" without its own stated fine.