Yuba City, CA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Feeding (2026)

The rule sits in Article 4 of Yuba City's animal control chapter, the article covering "other animals" rather than dogs. Sec. 480(a) defines a "feral cat" by reference to Food and Agricultural Code Sec. 5 and defines "free-feeding" as not limiting the amount of food put out at a single feeding, creating excess that draws other animals, including wildlife, onto the property. Sec. 480(b) makes it unlawful to create a public nuisance by free-feeding any wild animal, including feral cats, and Sec. 480(c) separately bars putting out more food than is reasonably adequate for the number of legally allowed domesticated cats a person actually cares for.

The ordinance draws the line between feeding your own registered cats a normal bowl of food and leaving out large, unattended quantities that pull in raccoons, skunks, geese, or colonies of unowned cats. Sec. 480(d) carves out one exception: people who qualify for a trap-neuter-release program the City establishes to manage its feral and wild cat populations can continue controlled feeding tied to that program without violating the section. Animal Control Services enforces the ban, and the general premises-cleanliness rule elsewhere in the chapter, Sec.

401, can be cited alongside a feeding complaint if the site draws vermin or accumulates waste. Because this is a City of Yuba City ordinance, it applies only inside the Yuba City limits; unincorporated land outside the city, including the surrounding rice and orchard country, falls under Sutter County's own nuisance code instead, not this section.