(A) Animals owned or harbored in violation of this chapter or any other ordinance or law of the state shall be taken into custody by the Animal Control Officer or designated official and impounded. Stray animals shall be similarly impounded, subject to the provisions of divisions (B), (C) and (D) that follow. The city shall have the right to pick up and impound animals on any day of the week.
(B) For the purpose of this section, FERAL CAT shall mean either an abandoned cat or the offspring of cats once owned and then abandoned.
(C) All feral cats captured by the city's Animal Control Officer, whether captured through the direct action of the officer or by becoming trapped in an animal-capturing device, will be taken by the officer to the city animal shelter. The feral cat will then be examined by a veterinarian to determine the condition of its health, and vaccinated for rabies.
(D) Before being released from impoundment, the feral cat will be spayed or neutered, as the case may be, and one ear of the cat will be “notched” or “tipped” so that it can be identified upon subsequent impoundment as being a feral cat that has completed the feral cat program. The feral cat shall be released once these procedures are completed.
(Ord. 483, passed 1-27-1987; Ord. 483A, passed 3-23-1993; Ord. 483D, passed 8-27-1996; Ord. 483-E, passed 8-11-2009)