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Lake Jackson council considers ordinance changes to address free-roaming cats, nuisance definitions and trapping rules
Summary
Council reviewed a draft ordinance amending Chapter 10 (Animals) to clarify ownership, nuisance criteria, feeding rules for free-roaming animals, trapping requirements, and procedures for animals in protective custody; staff will return a draft for first reading.
City staff and a volunteer task force presented a drafted amendment to Chapter 10 of the Lake Jackson Code of Ordinances that would clarify rules for free-roaming cats, nuisance animals, trapping, and animals held in protective custody.
Sherry, an animal-control presenter, told council the draft updates include a new ownership definition that treats the head of household as responsible for animals, a provision encouraging the microchipping of free-roaming cats as a way to establish ownership, and nuisance criteria that specify time-of-night sound limits and behaviors such as damaging property or entering private property against an owner's wishes.
"If an animal becomes a nuisance and we collect the animal because it's a nuisance, we'll check and see if it's chipped," Sherry said. "If it's chipped, we'll take it go to that owner and says, 'Your animal has been declared as a nuisance.'" The ordinance would give complainants a required witness statement and the option to appear in court if charges proceed, the presenter said, and would make clear that feral cats that are trapped and microchipped as part of private trap-neuter-return (TNR) efforts may be treated as owned for enforcement purposes if the caretaker registers them.
Council members and local rescuers asked clarifying questions about how microchipping, tagging and TNR would work in practice and whether chipping would be considered proof of ownership. Sherry said that a microchip that is registered to a person establishes an ownership link for enforcement and that unchipped animals handled as strays could be treated differently. Staff noted SPCA provides low-cost spay/neuter and microchipping services.
Sherry also proposed removing an outdated local "vicious dog" section in favor of the state statute and establishing written procedures for animals in protective custody and court orders for dispositions. The animal shelter advisory committee would be removed from the code, she said, because that committee no longer exists.
Council did not vote; members indicated support to bring back a revised draft ordinance for a first reading at a future meeting. Staff said they would return with a formal ordinance for the council's first and second readings when edits are complete.
