Kitsap County, WA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Rescue Permits (2026)

763 as "a place where nondomesticated animals are given medical or surgical treatment and are cared for during the time of such treatment and until they are ready for release back into the wild," as a distinct land use subject to supplemental standards, not an unregulated hobby. 575 groups wildlife shelters with veterinary clinics and animal hospitals and imposes a mandatory fifty-foot setback from side and rear lot lines in the rural protection and rural residential zones, dropping to thirty-five feet in every other zone.

Every such facility must connect directly to a county right-of-way the county engineer certifies as adequate, and the operator must show the use will not congest local residential streets. The Department of Community Development's director can go beyond these baseline numbers, increasing the setback, landscaping, or buffer requirements, or attaching other conditions, whenever a proposed shelter threatens excessive traffic, noise, or light next to existing or planned residential development. 575 siting standards to lawfully locate the shelter building and outdoor enclosures on the property. The county issues no separate "wildlife rescue permit" of its own; it regulates the activity through zoning siting review plus the state registration exemption.