Pen. Code, § 597l · Title 14. MALICIOUS MISCHIEF
Pen. Code, § 597l
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) It shall be unlawful for any person who operates a pet shop to fail to do all of the following:
(1) Maintain the facilities used for the keeping of pet animals in a sanitary condition.
(2) Provide proper heating and ventilation for the facilities used for the keeping of pet animals.
(3) Provide adequate nutrition for, and humane care and treatment of, all pet animals under his or her care and control.
(4) Take reasonable care to release for sale, trade, or adoption only those pet animals that are free of disease or injuries.
(5) Provide adequate space appropriate to the size, weight, and specie of pet animals.
(b) (1) Sellers of pet animals shall provide buyers of a pet animal with general written recommendations for the generally accepted care of the class of pet animal sold, including recommendations as to the housing, equipment, cleaning, environment, and feeding of the animal. This written information shall be in a form determined by the sellers of pet animals and may include references to Web sites, books, pamphlets, videos, and compact discs.
(2) If a seller of pet animals distributes material prepared by a third party, the seller shall not be liable for damages caused by any erroneous information in that material unless a reasonable person exercising ordinary care should have known of the error causing the damage.
(3) This subdivision shall apply to any private or public retail business that sells pet animals to the public and is required to possess a permit pursuant to Section 6066 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(4) Charges brought against a seller of pet animals for a first violation of the provisions of this subdivision shall be dismissed if the person charged produces in court satisfactory proof of compliance. A second or subsequent violation is an infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250).
(c) As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Pet animals” means dogs, cats, monkeys and other primates, rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, snakes, iguanas, turtles, and any other species of animal sold or retained for the purpose of being kept as a household pet.
(2) “Pet shop” means every place or premises where pet animals are kept for the purpose of either wholesale or retail sale. “Pet shop” does not include any place or premises where pet animals are occasionally sold.
(d) Any person who violates any provision of subdivision (a) is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding 90 days, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 62, Sec. 228. Effective January 1, 2004.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=597l.
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- sha256 4d3fa834bf6f4bdc3060f55b9d5ab7698953bfd7b551c4701d88fe8312b4eec9
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
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Revenue and Taxation Code
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