California

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Bills Recently Signed into Law

• S.B. 1135 — Wildlife Coexistence

Reinstates and expands the state’s successful Human-Wildlife Conflict program with $18 million for 2026–27 and $15 million in ongoing funding. The program provides public education, offers technical assistance, and maintains a statewide incident reporting system. It also helps communities deploy non-lethal devices, such as barriers or noise and light machines, to deter predators. This law goes into effect January 1, 2027.

• S.B. 1250 — Wildlife Crossings

Requires the California Department of Transportation to integrate wildlife connectivity assets, such as wildlife crossings and habitat corridors, into its state highway asset management plan. It also establishes a joint inventory with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to identify areas where wildlife passage features can reduce collisions and improve ecosystem health. This law goes into effect January 1, 2027.

• A.B. 2344 — Justice for Seized Animals Act

Expands existing cost-of-care and abandonment processes to apply when an animal is properly seized under any provision of California law, so that they can be adopted out sooner, instead of being held in shelters for months as evidence. This law goes into effect January 1, 2027.

• S.B. 1296 — Tenant-Landlord Companion Animal Transparency Act

Requires upfront, standardized disclosure of rental housing policies regarding companion animals, which reduces disputes, prevents hidden fees, gives landlords clear enforcement authority, and strengthens housing stability. This law goes into effect April 1, 2027.

• A.B. 1733 — Veterinary Continuing Education

Expands eligible continuing education for veterinarians to include four hours of pro bono spay-neuter services. This law goes into effect January 1, 2027.

• A.B. 1999 — Veterinary Access to Care

Creates a reduced-fee retired volunteer license for veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians, tightens the owner exemption, simplifies the veterinarian-client-patient relationship requirement, and extends corporate ownership reporting to permit renewals. This law goes into effect January 1, 2027.

• A.B. 2010 — High-Quality, High-Volume Spay-Neuter

Removes the requirement that spay-neuter services take place in a dedicated veterinary surgical suite for any veterinary premises that primarily performs high-quality, high-volume spay or neuter services, increasing access to more spay-neuter services. This law goes into effect January 1, 2027.