Berkeley, CA Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Berkeley has no dedicated list of banned exotic or wild species; instead, Section 10.12.230 reaches any animal, domestic or wild, found to be vicious or dangerous. Subsection A states plainly that it is unlawful to keep or allow to be kept in the City any vicious or dangerous animal, that such an animal shall be impounded and may be forthwith humanely destroyed, and that the only exception is a temporary permit the City Council grants by resolution for exhibition or experimental purposes, on whatever conditions the resolution imposes. That narrow carve-out is the closest thing Berkeley has to a zoo or research-animal permit; there is no by-right path to keep a species the City would classify as vicious or dangerous.

Enforcement reaches onto private property. Subsection B authorizes any police officer or other City employee to enter private premises to seize a vicious or dangerous animal, and allows the animal to be slain on the spot if it cannot be safely taken up and impounded, whether it is running at large or confined. Subsection C separately declares the keeping, harboring or maintaining of a vicious or dangerous animal a public nuisance contrary to public health, welfare and safety, which the City can abate through court proceedings in addition to seizure. This chapter is distinct from the dog-specific dangerous-animal rules in Chapter 10.04, which give a dog owner an administrative hearing and confinement options; Section 10.12.230 offers no comparable hearing before an animal is impounded or destroyed.