Salinas, CA Animal Ordinances: Breed Restrictions (2026)

Salinas enforces its own dangerous-dog program under its municipal code, but the underlying framework, and the ban on breed-specific rules, comes from state law. Food and Agricultural Code Section 31683 lets a city or county adopt or enforce its own program for potentially dangerous or vicious dogs, or punish a violation as a misdemeanor, or impose a stricter program than the state's, but it flatly bars any program regulating a dog from being "specific as to breed," except as allowed under Health and Safety Code Section 122331.

The state's own definitions set the baseline: Section 31602 defines a "potentially dangerous dog" as one that, unprovoked, requires defensive action to prevent injury on two separate occasions within 36 months, bites causing a less severe injury, or twice kills or injures another animal off its owner's property. Section 31603 defines a "vicious dog" as one that, unprovoked and in an aggressive manner, kills or severely injures a person, or a dog already listed as potentially dangerous that keeps up the behavior or breaks its confinement order.

Reaching either designation runs through a hearing: Section 31621 requires an animal control or law enforcement officer to find probable cause before the local shelter, animal control department, or law enforcement agency petitions the superior court, or uses a city or county administrative hearing procedure, and the owner must get 5 to 10 working days' notice before the hearing. Section 31622 gives either side 5 days after the written determination to appeal, with the filing fee set under Government Code Section 70626(b), and a de novo hearing before a different judge if the original hearing was in superior court.

Once a dog is designated potentially dangerous, Section 31641 requires licensing, vaccination and a potentially-dangerous designation on its registration, and Section 31642 requires the dog be kept indoors or in a secure, child-proof fenced yard, or on a leash under adult control off the property.