Pen. Code, § 597u · Title 14. MALICIOUS MISCHIEF
Pen. Code, § 597u
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A person, peace officer, officer of a humane society, or officer of an animal shelter or animal regulation department of a public agency shall not kill an animal by using either of the following methods:
(1) Carbon monoxide gas.
(2) Intracardiac injection of a euthanasia agent on a conscious animal, unless the animal is heavily sedated or anesthetized in a humane manner, or comatose, or unless, in light of all the relevant circumstances, the procedure is justifiable.
(b) With respect to the killing of a dog or cat, a person, peace officer, officer of a humane society, or officer of an animal shelter or animal regulation department of a public agency shall not use any of the methods specified in subdivision (a) or any of the following methods:
(1) High-altitude decompression chamber.
(2) Nitrogen gas.
(3) Carbon dioxide gas.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 7, Sec. 23. (AB 1553) Effective January 1, 2020.
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=597u.
- Text hash
- sha256 a4f191a398daeaddb3436aa0d842ef3b39b478598421f958c475db5564e6b4fe
- Composed by
- 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
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 597u. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Food and Agricultural Code
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