Baltimore's "TNR Law"

In 2007, Baltimore City passed legislation making the practice of "trap-neuter-return" (TNR) legal and Baltimore City's preferred way of managing its feral cat population. Community Cats Maryland, an independent non-profit organization, has partnered with the City to assist residents with meeting the requirements of the new law.

The City STRONGLY encourages all caretakers to register with CCMD, even if you have not yet TNRed your colony. (Registration information is not shared with the City; it is collected solely for statistical purposes.)

The law requires caretakers to make reasonable, good-faith efforts to:

  1. Humanely trap all their colony cats and have them all altered, vaccinated against rabies and ear-tipped in a specific style.
  2. Return all TNRed colony cats to their colony/home site following full recovery from surgery.
  3. Monitor each colony and have any new cats TNRed.
  4. Provide sufficient food and water to all colony cats, on a regular basis, year-round and in the most sanitary way possible.
  5. Provide the colony cats with adequate shelter.
  6. Keep records on each colony cat, including proof of rabies vaccinations.
  7. Exclude colony cats from the property of neighbors, if neighbors so request.
  8. Work with neighbors to resolve complaints regarding colony cats.
  9. Provide a replacement caretaker during a primary caretaker's temporary or permanent absence.

You can read the TNR law in its entirety on the Baltimore City Health Department website.