Mountain View, CA Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

California Food and Agricultural Code Sec. 31683 lets a city or county adopt its own program to control potentially dangerous or vicious dogs, and even make that local program more restrictive than state law, or punish a violation as a misdemeanor, but the statute draws a hard line: "no program regulating any dog shall be specific as to breed," subject only to a service-dog carve-out in Health and Safety Code Sec. 122331. Mountain View has built exactly the kind of behavior-based program the statute contemplates.

Sec. 63 lets the animal control officer or a sworn complainant start a hearing to classify a dog as "dangerous," with written notice mailed to the owner and to every residential parcel within 100 feet of the property at least five business days before the hearing. If the hearing officer classifies the dog dangerous, Sec. 64 imposes a strict regime regardless of breed: the dog must be spayed or neutered, fitted with a valid registered microchip, muzzled and leashed on a nonretractable three-foot leash rated for four times its weight whenever it leaves the owner's property, and confined at home in a locked kennel with sides buried two feet into the ground behind a six-foot fence.

Sec. 65 layers on annual registration, a $100,000 minimum public liability insurance policy or equivalent surety, and a 24-hour duty to report if the dog escapes, attacks or dies. A hearing officer may bar the owner from owning any dog in the city for up to three years if keeping one would be a significant threat to public health and safety. Because Food and Agricultural Code Secs. 31602 and 31603 define "potentially dangerous" and "vicious" dogs strictly by documented biting or attack incidents within a 36-month period, not by breed, a Mountain View dog cannot be designated dangerous, muzzled, or subjected to the insurance and confinement rules based on its breed alone.