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Copyrighted by SANTA CLARA COUNTY CODE & Municipal Code Corporation, 1998.

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Sec. B31-1. Definitions.

The words and terms used in this division shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

(a) Animal: Any live vertebrate creature, domestic or wild, except fish.

(b) Animal Control Officer: Any person authorized to act on behalf of the County Manager of Animal Care and Control in the enforcement of this division, and on behalf of the County Health Officer in the enforcement of rabies control laws.

(c) Animal menagerie: Any place where dangerous animals are kept or maintained for any purpose, including places where dangerous animals are boarded, exhibited, trained or kept for hire.

(d) Animal shelter: A facility operated by a public jurisdiction or by an accredited, tax-exempt humane organization, including a wildlife or animal rescue organization, for the purpose of impounding, harboring, selling, placing or destroying seized, stray, distressed, homeless, abandoned or unwanted animals.

(e) Cat: A domestic cat (Felis catus).

(f) Commercial kennel: Any person engaged in the commercial breeding of dogs or cats, or both, for sale, individually or in litter lots; or in the boarding, training, sale or hire of dogs and/or cats for compensation as permitted under the County Zoning Ordinance. Animal hospitals maintained by a veterinarian licensed by the State of California as part of the practice of veterinary medicine, animal shelters or private kennels shall not be considered commercial kennels.

(g) Dangerous animal: Any wild, exotic or venomous animal, or other animal that because of its size, disposition or other characteristic would constitute a danger to persons or property.

(h) Dog: A domestic dog (Canis familiaris), excluding wolf hybrids.

(i) Feral cat: A domestic cat that lives in wild state and cannot be socialized.

(j) Grooming parlor: Any commercial place where animals are trimmed, bathed or groomed.

(k) Health Officer: The County Director of Public Health or any person authorized to act on his or her behalf.

(l) Homeless cat: A domestic cat that has been abandoned by its owner/guardian, strayed from its owner/guardian, or is born feral.

(m) Manager: The Manager of the Animal Care and Control Division or any person authorized or designated by the Manager to act on his or her behalf.

(n) Owner/Guardian: Any person who acknowledges ownership/guardianship of an animal or who harbors, keeps or feeds an animal for five or more consecutive days. The use of the term "guardian" or "guardianship" is solely to influence the public for the responsible treatment of animals and does not change the legal rights or duties of animal owners.

(o) Person: Any individual, establishment, firm, association, organization, partnership, trust, corporation or company.

(p) Pet shop: A person who obtains animals for sale, exchange, barter or hire to the general public as a principal or agent, or on consignment, or who holds himself or herself out to be so engaged.

(q) Potentially dangerous dog: Any dog, except a dog assisting a peace officer engaged in law enforcement duties, which:

(1) When unprovoked, on two separate occasions within the prior 36-month period, engages in any behavior that required a defensive action by any person to prevent bodily injury when the person and the dog are off property of the owner/guardian or keeper of the dog.

(2) When unprovoked, bites a person causing a less severe injury than defined in Section B31-1(v) pertaining to "vicious dog."

(3) When unprovoked, on two separate occasions within the prior 36-month period, has killed, seriously bitten, inflicted injury or otherwise caused injury attacking a domestic animal off the property of the owner/guardian or keeper of the dog.

(r) Private kennel: Except as provided in Subsection B31-32(b) and (c), and subject to a private kennel permit and as permitted by the County Zoning Ordinance, a private residence or adjunct wherein three to seven dogs over four months of age, or six to ten cats over four months of age, are maintained.

(1) In no case shall the combined total of dogs and cats exceed ten.

(2) All such animals shall be for the owner/guardian's recreational use, for exhibition in conformation shows and field or obedience trials, for use in nonprofit search and rescue operations, for use in nonprofit activities in hospitals and schools, and where the sale of the offspring is not the primary function of the kennel.

(3) The maintenance of more than two male dogs or cats used for breeding purposes for which compensation is received, or the parturition, rearing or harboring of more than one litter of dogs or cats in any one calendar year, shall create a rebuttable presumption that such animals are owned/under the guardianship of or maintained for commercial purposes. In such case, the owner/guardian and the premises shall be subject to the commercial kennel permit requirements.

(s) Quarantine: Isolation of an animal in a place and manner approved by the Health Officer.

(t) Vicious dog: Any dog:

(1) Seized under California Penal Code Section 599(aa) and upon the sustaining of a conviction of the owner/guardian or keeper under California Penal Code Section 597.5; or

(2) Which, when unprovoked, in an aggressive manner, inflicts severe injury on or kills a human being. Severe injury shall mean any physical injury to a human being that results in muscle tears or disfiguring lacerations or requires multiple sutures or corrective or cosmetic surgery; or

(3) Previously determined to be and currently listed as a "potentially dangerous dog" which, after its owner/guardian or keeper has been notified of this determination, continues the behavior described in Section B31-1(s) or is maintained in violation of California Food and Agricultural Code Section 31641, 31642, or 31643.

(Ord. No. NS-300.745, § 1, 5-2-06; Ord. No. NS-300.878, § 1, 10-2-07)

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