Publication Date
4-12-2026
Abstract
The United States entrusts local governments to provide citizens with a wide range of public services, and animal control makes up a small but essential piece of these local responsibilities. In recent years, American localities have largely privatized how they manage the nation’s growing free-roaming cat population, relying primarily on animal-loving volunteers and a controversial practice called trap-neuter-return (TNR). Academics have long debated the merits of privatization, but TNR raises a novel question: how should local governments think about regulating a privatized public service when altruism, instead of profits, motivates the service deliverer? This Note argues that TNR demonstrates the need for local governments to retain significant regulatory power and oversight, no matter the private service provider’s intentions. Not only does tailored regulation avoid inappropriate delegations of policymaking discretion, but it also limits a locality’s exposure to litigation.
Recommended Citation
Jonathan Korger,
What the Free-Roaming Cats Dragged In: Regulatory Concerns with Privatized Local Services,
120
Nw. U. L. Rev.
1731
(2026).
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol120/iss6/5
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