Colusa County, CA Animal Ordinances: Livestock (2026)

Colusa County is a rural agricultural county (cattle, sheep, poultry, and rice), and the Zoning Code, Chapter 44, allows the keeping and raising of commercial animals by right in all agricultural zones, exempt from the residential animal-density limits of Section 44-4.110. The code defines "livestock" as larger animals traditionally kept for farm use, including pigs, sheep, goats, equine, and bovine animals such as horses and cows, and large flightless birds such as ostriches and emus. On strays, Chapter 3, Section 3-1(a) makes it unlawful for any owner of a horse, mule, cow, sheep, goat, hog, chicken, or other fowl or animal to allow it to trespass or estray within (or within one mile of) any unincorporated city or town, or to run on the land of another without the landowner's written permission. Section 3-3 bars allowing animals to estray onto a main public highway, and Section 3-4 prohibits leading animals behind automobiles. Colusa County's Right to Farm ordinance, Chapter 34, adopts state Civil Code Section 3482.5 so that a commercial agricultural operation conducted properly for more than three years is not a nuisance, and it requires sellers to disclose to buyers the county's agricultural priority. The county also employs "county trappers" under Sections 3-38 to 3-40 to control predatory wolves, coyotes, foxes, cougars, and wildcats.