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Local law · Int 1471-2025

Cats in retail food stores

Official titleShow

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to cats in retail food stores

The heading above is this same sentence with its legal opening removed. No words were added, changed or reordered.

Filed at end of sessionLatest action Dec 31, 2025

New York City Council

Sponsor

Keith Powers

Summary

This bill would override the provisions of the New York City Health Code that prohibit owners of retail food stores from keeping a cat within their store. Importantly, however, this bill standing alone would not permit store owners to keep cats in their stores. Instead, further action would be required by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to change its regulations prohibiting the keeping of live animals within stores. Additionally, this bill would require the Office of Animal Welfare, in collaboration with the Department of Small Business Services, to establish a program to provide free vaccinations and spaying and neutering services to cats residing in retail food stores and to conduct an outreach campaign to inform retail food store owners regarding these programs.

Summary from NYC Council (Legistar). How we handle summaries

From the NYC Council's legislative record (Legistar) and official rosters. This record was last updated Sep 7, 2026. About our data

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Where it stands

The session ended before it was voted on. It was not defeated; it simply ran out of time, which is what happens to most legislation. It would have to be reintroduced.

  1. Introduced
  2. In committee
  3. Up for a vote
  4. Passed one chamber
  5. Passed
  6. Enacted
Filed at end of session

Committee

Committee on Health

Cosponsors

Francisco P. Moya, Sandy Nurse and 3 others

Cosponsors in the order the New York City Council lists them.

  • Democratic2
  • Republican2

This bill has cosponsors from more than one party.

Party is shown for the 4 cosponsors who are on Agora.

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

Names without a link are in the official record but not on Agora.

Full history

  1. Dec 31, 2025

    Filed

    This Introduction was Filed (End of Session)

    NYC Council

  2. Nov 12, 2025

    Introduced

    This Introduction was Introduced by Council

    NYC Council

  3. Nov 12, 2025

    Referred to committee

    This Introduction was Referred to Comm by Council to the Committee on Health

    NYC Council