Napa, CA Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

California's preemption of breed-specific legislation is codified at Food and Agricultural Code Section 31683 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAC&sectionNum=31683.). The statute permits cities and counties to maintain a program of identification, registration, and mandatory spay-or-neuter for breeds it determines are potentially dangerous or vicious, but bars any local program that is specific to any breed — California allows mandatory spay/neuter by breed but not breed bans, ownership prohibitions, or breed-based numerical limits. Napa has not adopted any breed-specific spay/neuter program, so no breed-based restriction applies inside city limits. Dangerous-dog determinations are made on an individual-behavior basis under California Food & Ag Code Sections 31601-31683 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayexpandedbranch.xhtml?tocCode=FAC&division=14.&title=&part=6.&chapter=9.&article=): a dog is potentially dangerous if it has, on two occasions within a 36-month period, engaged in unprovoked aggressive behavior off the owner's property, or has bitten a human causing less-than-severe injury, or has killed or seriously injured another domestic animal off the owner's property; a dog is vicious if it inflicted severe injury or killed a person, or if a potentially dangerous dog continues that behavior despite an enclosure order. Hearings are conducted before an animal control official (Napa County Animal Services) and may be appealed to the Napa County Superior Court. Napa Municipal Code Section 6.04.050 (https://qcode.us/codes/napa/view.php?frames=on&topic=city_of_napa_municipal_code-6-6_04-6_04_050) addresses diseased and vicious animals on a behavior, not breed, basis. Insurance underwriting by breed remains a separate matter of state insurance law and is not regulated by Section 31683.