Stanislaus County, CA Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

030(A) requires anyone possessing a non-domesticated animal the animal services executive director considers potentially dangerous to first obtain a dangerous-animal license: the county's mechanism for regulating exotic and wild-type pets rather than a blanket ban. Subsection B conditions issuance on the animal not violating any federal or state law or zoning ordinance, tying the license to the county's separate zoning rules (for example, the A-2 agricultural district's tiered-use list, which places fur-bearing animals, zoo-type animals, exotic birds, and Fish and Game-regulated wildlife under planning commission review).

The application goes on a SASA-furnished form, and the resulting license must be posted conspicuously where the animal is kept. Before issuing an original license or a renewal, the licensing authority must get the director's certification on four points: the keeping of the animal won't violate any law or regulation, won't endanger the health, peace, or safety of the community, that the premises are clean and sanitary with no suffering, cruelty or abuse, and that the applicant hasn't had a similar license revoked in the past year.

The director can attach additional conditions to any license, and a license must be denied or revoked outright whenever, in the director's opinion, keeping the animal would endanger one or more people. If a license is denied or revoked, the owner must dispose of the unlicensed animal within the timeframe and conditions the director sets.