Gardena, CA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

Because Gardena adopts Los Angeles County Code Title 10 as its own animal control regulations under Municipal Code Section 6.02.010, County Code Section 10.84.010 governs wildlife feeding citywide, with every reference to county in Title 10 read as City of Gardena. The section makes it unlawful to feed a nondomesticated rodent or nondomesticated mammalian predator, and it defines rodent to specifically include ground squirrels and mammalian predators to specifically include coyotes, raccoons, foxes and opossums, naming coyotes directly in the operative text rather than leaving the category to interpretation.

Two narrow exceptions apply: a person who owns the animal and keeps it in accordance with California Department of Fish and Wildlife requirements, and a person who provides food to a trapped or injured animal only after notifying the agency responsible for pickup. Outside those two carve-outs, leaving pet food, table scraps, or bait for a coyote or ground squirrel on a Gardena property is a code violation regardless of intent to help the animal. The Gardena Police Department, serving as poundmaster under Section 6.02.005, and the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control under the city's contract both have authority to enforce the section and to inspect complaints of habitual feeding, since a feeding pattern that draws coyotes into residential yards can also be charged as a related animal nuisance under Section 10.40.065 if it leads to attacks or repeated at-large predator activity near homes.