Oakdale Municipal Code § 4-21 Animal care

(a) No owner shall fail to provide his or her animal(s) with sufficient good and wholesome food and water, proper shelter and protection from the weather, veterinary care when needed to prevent suffering, and with humane care and treatment.

(b) No owner of an animal shall abandon such animal.

(c) No person shall beat, cruelly ill-treat, torment, overwork or otherwise abuse an animal, or cause, instigate, or permit any dogfight, cockfight, bullfight, or other combat between animals or between animals and human beings.

(d) No person shall crop a dog's ears; except when a licensed veterinarian issues a signed certificate that the operation is necessary for the dog's health and comfort, and in no event shall any person, except a licensed veterinarian, perform such an operation.

(e) Any person who, as the operator of a motor vehicle, strikes a domestic animal, shall stop at once and render such assistance as may be possible and shall immediately report such injury or death to the animal's owner; in the event the owner cannot be ascertained and located, such operator shall at once report the accident to the appropriate law enforcement agency or local humane society.

(f) No person shall expose any known poisonous substance, whether mixed food or not, so that the same shall be liable to be eaten by any animal, provided that it shall not be unlawful for a person to expose on his own property common rat poison mixed with vegetable substances.

[Ord. No. 1000, § 1.]

[Added 7-1-2019 by Ord. No. 1266]

(a) A feral cat is a cat that lives permanently outside of a domestic home and is not owned and cared for as a typical companion animal or pet, as a result of having been born feral, abandoned by an owner, or rendered homeless, wild or stray by any other means, whose unusual and consistent temperament is extreme fear and resistance to contact with people. It shall be unlawful for any person within the City of Oakdale to intentionally provide food, water, or other forms of sustenance to a feral cat unless the person furnishes Animal Services with a signed statement agreeing to all of the following conditions:

(1) Register with Animal Services and Control as a caretaker of feral cats;

(2) Provide Animal Services written authorization from the owner of the property where the caretaking of feral cat(s) will occur;

(3) Feed feral cat(s) daily in a manner that does not leave excess food in the area:

(4) Regularly trap and spay/neuter cats over the age of eight weeks:

(5) Evaluate all trapped cats for symptoms of illness to include feline leukemia and feline immune deficiency virus, and test if illness is suspected, and have those who test positive humanely euthanized or isolated indoors, abiding by veterinarian recommendation;

(6) Identify all trapped cats by tipping their ears;

(7) Arrange to have all trapped cats vaccinated for rabies in addition to any other vaccination or immunization requirement imposed by the state.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and intentionally abandon or otherwise release a cat upon any public or private property or public right-of-way outside of the provisions of this section.

(c) Any violation of this section may be punishable as a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment in the County Jail for not more than six months, or both such fine and imprisonment. In addition, any violations may be subject to the administrative citation process as set forth in this Code.