Stanislaus County, CA Animal Ordinances: Mandatory Spay/Neuter (2026)

54 of the county code opens with the board of supervisors' finding that pet overpopulation drives shelter overcrowding, inhumane conditions, and mass euthanasia at Stanislaus animal shelters, and directs that all dogs four months or older be licensed and spayed or neutered unless the owner buys a permit to keep the animal intact. 030 makes that operative: no one may cause or allow a dog or cat kept in the county to breed without a litter permit issued annually by the animal services executive director.

SASA administers the program and may not issue a permit to anyone convicted of animal cruelty or neglect. A household may whelp only one litter per animal per permit year, though the director can approve a second litter on veterinarian-verified health grounds or after a permittee is forced to euthanize a prior litter. Offspring cannot be sold, adopted, or transferred before seven weeks of age and their first vaccinations, and any advertisement or sale receipt must carry the litter permit number. Law enforcement and service dogs, animals held by government agencies or 501(c)(3) rescue and humane organizations running their own spay/neuter and adoption plans, and licensed guide-dog breeding programs are exempt.

010 requires every dog four months or older to carry an annual county license, and charges owners of unaltered dogs a higher fee, the extra revenue is earmarked for public spay/neuter programs, while livestock-ranch dogs over two acres and AKC/UKC show or working dogs qualify for the reduced altered-dog rate. Both chapters were adopted by Ordinance CS 1136 in 2013, with the dog-license section amended by Ordinance CS 1349 in October 2023.