Simi Valley, CA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Rescue Permits (2026)

050(C) defines Wildlife Rehabilitation Facilities as operations that care for and release injured or orphaned wild animals back into the environment, and it sets nine standards they must meet. The facility must sit on a residential property within the Limited Farm Animal (L) overlay zone, hold a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet, and secure a City-issued Conditional Use Permit, which cannot be issued until the operator already holds every applicable County, State, and Federal permit. Only animals indigenous to California, such as game birds, protected nongame birds, small game mammals, furbearing mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, may be treated; the ordinance expressly bars mountain lions, elk, adult deer, wild pigs, antelope, bighorn sheep, bear, other big game defined in 14 CCR § 350, and any species classified as exotic under 14 CCR § 671.

The maximum number of animals on-site at any time must be fixed in the CUP itself, and once treatment ends, animals must be released, transferred to a permitted facility, or humanely euthanized, with release limited to animals that originated in the surrounding area. A facility can keep a limited number of non-releasable resident animals for education or facility operations if state and federal permits allow it. Operations are capped at two staff or volunteers on-site at once, no public programs or events are allowed, and the CUP holder must be the property's owner-occupant.

Enclosure structures need standard residential side and rear setbacks, and open pens or uncovered enclosures must sit at least 50 feet from any off-site home other than the keeper's own residence.