Fighting Laws and Policies That Endanger Cats


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Fighting Laws and Policies That Endanger Cats If there is a law being proposed that would endanger cats’ well-being, or if there are already bad laws in place, there are things you can do to advocate for the cats and fight the bad laws. First, you need to know your local laws that relate to cats. Check out our guide on Finding Laws that Relate to Cats. Look for these local laws that impact community cats: Trap-Neuter-Return laws Limit laws Leash laws Licensing laws Feeding bans Mandatory spay and neuter laws Abandonment laws Some of your local laws may be good for cats, and some of them may be bad. Our guide talks about each kind of law including what they do, and what to look out for to help you determine if they are good for cats or bad for cats. Once you know what the laws are, and have identified any bad laws that endanger cats, you’ll need to advocate to remove or change the laws. Check out our Advocacy Toolkit and Organizing Your Community for Strategic Change for Cats. Bad laws can endanger cats’ lives just as much as any other community conflict and can impact cats throughout your community. It’s important that you address bad laws in your community with same amount of passion and vigilance as you would any other serious threat to cats’ well-being. Passing Good Laws to Protect Cats When conflicts about cats happen, it may make sense to work to pass a law that benefits the cats. Passing a good law is also helpful if a bad law needs to be replaced. For example, if your neighbors are consistently in conflict with you over Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), it may be helpful to work to pass a law making TNR the official way to address the community cat population in your community. You can learn how to advocate for cats in your community, including how to pass laws, in our Advocacy Toolkit. You can also find information specifically about drafting a good TNR ordinance with our Ordinance Drafting Guidelines. See how Alley Cat Allies uses the law to protect cats, and find even more resources, on our website at alleycat.org/CatsAndTheLaw.

If there is a law being proposed that would endanger cats’ well-being, or if there are already bad laws in place, there are things you can do to advocate for the cats and fight the bad laws.

First, you need to know your local laws that relate to cats. Check out our guide on Finding Laws that Relate to Cats.

Look for these local laws that impact community cats:

Trap-Neuter-Return laws
Limit laws
Leash laws
Licensing laws
Feeding bans
Mandatory spay and neuter laws
Abandonment laws

Some of your local laws may be good for cats, and some of them may be bad. Our guide talks about each kind of law including what they do, and what to look out for to help you determine if they are good for cats or bad for cats.

Once you know what the laws are, and have identified any bad laws that endanger cats, you’ll need to advocate to remove or change the laws. Check out our Advocacy Toolkit and Organizing Your Community for Strategic Change for Cats.

Bad laws can endanger cats’ lives just as much as any other community conflict and can impact cats throughout your community. It’s important that you address bad laws in your community with same amount of passion and vigilance as you would any other serious threat to cats’ well-being.

Passing Good Laws to Protect Cats

When conflicts about cats happen, it may make sense to work to pass a law that benefits the cats. Passing a good law is also helpful if a bad law needs to be replaced. For example, if your neighbors are consistently in conflict with you over Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), it may be helpful to work to pass a law making TNR the official way to address the community cat population in your community.

You can learn how to advocate for cats in your community, including how to pass laws, in our Advocacy Toolkit.

You can also find information specifically about drafting a good TNR ordinance with our Ordinance Drafting Guidelines.

See how Alley Cat Allies uses the law to protect cats, and find even more resources, on our website at alleycat.org/CatsAndTheLaw.