Permits for Wildlife

Section 2150 authorizes the department to issue a written permit to import into, possess, or transport within this state any wild animal upon a determination that the animal is not detrimental or that no damage or detriment can be caused to agriculture, native wildlife, the public health or safety, or the welfare of the animal, as a result of the importation, transportation, or possession.

A permit may be issued to any person only upon application and payment of a nonrefundable application fee. The commission or the department must deny a permit and the commission must revoke a permit if it finds that a permittee or applicant has failed to meet, or is unable to meet, the requirements for importing, transporting, possessing, or confining any wild animal.

A zoo is exempt from any permit requirement pursuant to this chapter except for animals whose importation, transportation, or possession is determined by the department, in cooperation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, to be detrimental or cause damage to agriculture, native wildlife, or the public health or safety. The term “zoo” is defined.

Section 2150.1 specifies that fees collected pursuant to this chapter for permits, permit applications, and facility inspections are to be deposited in the Fish and Game Preservation Fund.

Section 2150.2 requires the department to establish fees for permits, permit applications, and facility inspections in amounts sufficient to cover the costs of administering, implementing, and enforcing this chapter.

Section 2150.3 requires the director to appoint a committee to advise the director on the humane care and treatment of wild animals. The committee makes recommendations to the director for the establishment of standards of performance for administration and enforcement, which shall include requiring that the eligible local entity possess a knowledge of humane wild animal training methods.

Section 2150.4 requires the department or an eligible local entity to inspect the wild animal facilities, as determined by the director’s advisory committee, of each person holding a permit authorizing the possession of a wild animal.

Section 2150.5 provides that classes, orders, families, genera, and species which may not be imported, transported, possessed, or released alive in this state solely because of concern for the welfare of the animal may be possessed under permit when the owner can demonstrate that the animal was legally acquired and possessed in California before the effective date of this section. 

Section 2151 requires a permit to be issued only upon written application from the person desiring to import or transport the species, enumerating five specified items.

Section 2152 requires each permit issued to set forth three specified items.

Section 2153 requires, whenever any permit is issued under the provisions of this article, one copy is sent by the department to the State Department of Food and Agriculture, one copy to the county agricultural commissioner or to the state plant quarantine officer having jurisdiction at the place designated in the application as the probable point of first arrival in the state of the species, and one copy accompanies each shipment of wild animals involved.

Section 2155 states that the provisions of this chapter and regulations apply to the progeny of any wild animal imported or possessed under these laws and regulations, except that no permit is required for the possession of progeny if a permit has already been obtained by the owner for the parent, and the progeny are kept at the same site.

Section 2156 provides that neither the provisions of this chapter nor the regulations of the commission prevent any city or county from enacting ordinances relating to the possession or care of wild animals provided such ordinances are more restrictive.

Section 2157 requires every person holding a permit issued to uniquely identify each wild mammal that poses a risk to the health and safety of the public and report this identification to the department to maintain in a registry. The commission adopted regulations that addressed three specified items.