For purposes of this Article, the following words and phrases have the
meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
CAT
Any member of the domestic feline species; male, female or altered.
CAT OF LICENSING AGE
Any cat which has attained the age of seven months or which possesses
a set of permanent teeth.
OWNER
When applied to the proprietorship of a cat, includes every person
having a right of property in such cat and every person who has such cat in
his keeping or who harbors or maintains a cat or knowingly permits a cat to
remain on or about any premises occupied by that person.
No person shall own, keep or harbor any cat within the borough without
registering and obtaining a license therefor, to be issued by the Borough
Clerk upon application by the owner and payment of the prescribed fee. No
person shall own, keep or harbor any cat in the borough except in compliance
with the provisions of this Article.
The application shall state the breed, sex, age, color and marking of
the cat for which license and registration are sought and whether it is of
a long- or short-haired variety. The application shall also state the name,
street and post office address of the owner and of the person who will keep
or harbor such cat. It shall also list any tattoo or other body marking applied
to the cat for identification purposes. The information on the application
and the registration number issued for the cat shall be preserved for a period
of three years by the Clerk. Registration numbers shall be issued in the order
of application.
Any person who owns, keeps or harbors a cat of licensing age shall,
annually in the month of January, apply for and procure from the Clerk a license
and official registration tag for each such cat so owned, kept or harbored.
Such person shall place upon each such cat a collar or other device with the
license number securely fastened or displayed thereto.
The license, registration tags and renewals thereof shall expire on
the last day of January of the following year.
No person, except an official in the performance of his duties, shall
remove a registration tag from the collar of any cat without the consent of
the owner, nor shall any person attach a registration tag to a cat for which
it was not issued.
The Animal Control Officer shall take into custody and impound or cause
to be taken into custody and impounded, and thereafter destroyed or disposed
of, as provided in §§
133-29 and
133-30:
A. Any cat off the premises of the owner or of the person
keeping or harboring the cat, which the Animal Control Officer or his assistant
or assistants have reason to believe is a stray cat.
B. Any cat without a current registration tag on his collar,
or any cat which the Animal Control Officer has reason to believe is diseased.
For every cat impounded, there shall be detention expense charged in
the amount of $3, which shall include maintenance for the first calendar day.
Thereafter there shall be a maintenance charge for each cat so seized at the
rate of $1 per day. When any cat so seized has been detained seven days after
notice or has been detained for seven days after seizure, when notice has
not been given and cannot be given as set forth in §
133-29, and
if the owner or person keeping or harboring the cat has not claimed the cat
and has not paid expenses incurred by reason of its detention, including the
maintenance charge, or if the cat is unlicensed at the time of the seizure
and the owner or person keeping or harboring the cat has not produced a license
and registration tag for such cat, the Animal Control Officer may cause the
cat to be destroyed in manner causing as little pain as possible or dispose
of the cat by placement with some reasonable person desiring such cat or otherwise.
No person shall abandon any cat, no matter what its age may be, within
the borough.
Any person violating the provisions of this Article shall be subject
to the penalties provided for by the general penalties provision of the Code
of the Borough of New Providence.