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

060, part of the county's dog-licensing and rabies-control chapter, makes it unlawful for anyone in Calaveras County to own, keep, harbor or possess an animal of the family Canidae that can transmit the rabies virus unless it can be immunized with a state-approved vaccine. The section then carves out an exception for wild animals: they may be kept, but only under a valid permit issued by the California Department of Fish and Game and only at an approved facility. That exception is narrow. It explicitly does not extend to hybrids of Canidae species, so a wolf-dog or coyote-dog cross cannot be kept in the county even with a state permit.

Anyone who does hold a permit still has to follow every rule in the California Department of Fish and Game's Manual No. 060 adopts by reference to cover humane care and treatment of wild animals and minimum facility and caging standards, including at rescue facilities. Permitted wild animals also cannot be sold, offered for sale, adopted out or given away except to another properly licensed facility. 030 defines 'wild animal' broadly for the whole animal-control title, sweeping in the Carnivora, Marsupialia, Chiroptera, Proboscidea and Primata orders (with dogs and cats excepted), venomous species, and any nondomestic animal kept in a way that endangers people or property, so the county's reach extends well beyond exotic Canidae to cover primates, big cats and other wild species kept as pets.