Yuba City, CA Noise Ordinances: Barking Dogs (2026)

The City of Yuba City contracts animal services to the Sutter Animal Services Authority (SASA), a Joint Powers Authority comprised of the County of Sutter, the City of Yuba City, and the City of Live Oak. SASA's enabling framework defines a nuisance animal as any animal that 'barks or howls so continuously or incessantly as to unreasonably disturb the peace and tranquility of the neighborhood' - the same reasonable-person, peace-and-tranquility standard that YCMC Title 4 Chapter 17 (Noise Regulations) uses for general noise. Commercial dog kennels permitted by zoning law are expressly exempt. The SASA complaint process runs in three sequential steps: (1) the first complaint results in a 'Notice of Complaint' left at the dog owner's residence - the complainant must provide the dog's address and their own contact information; (2) for a second complaint, the complainant must come into the SASA office and sign the second complaint, and is advised to maintain a log documenting dates, times, and duration of barking incidents for at least two weeks; (3) the third complaint must come from a different household than the first two, with that household also maintaining a two-week log. SASA can only respond to a barking complaint two times within a six-month period - after which the process pauses for six months before re-starting. Animal noise that does not rise to the SASA threshold can still be cited as a general YCMC Chapter 17 noise violation by Yuba City Police or Code Enforcement, with the standard $100 / $200 / $500 graduated fine schedule. SASA operates Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Yuba City Code Enforcement at (530) 822-4703 can also accept noise complaints. California Food and Agricultural Code Section 31105 and Penal Code Section 597 provide state-law animal-cruelty and dangerous-dog backstops independent of the local barking-dog framework.