Redding does not have a breed-specific dog ordinance and cannot enact one. California Food and Agricultural Code Section 31683 expressly preempts local breed bans — cities and counties may not adopt dog-control ordinances that are specific to any breed. Redding may regulate dangerous behavior on an individual-dog basis under the state dangerous and vicious dog statutes at Food & Ag Code Sections 31601-31683, but no breed (including pit bulls, Rottweilers, and German shepherds) may be singled out for prohibition or numerical restriction.
California's preemption of breed-specific legislation is at Food and Agricultural Code Section 31683 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAC§ionNum=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 — that is, California allows mandatory spay/neuter by breed but not breed bans, ownership prohibitions, or breed-based numerical limits. Redding 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 on those determinations are conducted before an animal control official (Haven Humane) and may be appealed to the Shasta County Superior Court. Insurance underwriting by breed remains a separate matter of state insurance law and is not regulated by Section 31683.
Because breed-specific local ordinances are state-preempted, no Redding citation can be issued solely based on a dog's breed. Behavior-based potentially dangerous or vicious dog determinations under Food & Ag Code Sections 31621-31626 carry orders for enclosure, posting, microchipping, and (for vicious dogs) potential destruction. Owners of vicious dogs may be prohibited from owning, possessing, or controlling any dog for up to three years under Section 31645. Local citations issued contrary to Section 31683 are reversible.
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