West's Annotated California Codes Currentness. Penal Code. Part 1. Of Crimes and Punishments.
Title 14. Malicious Mischief. § 597.2. Equines; abandoned or relinquished; auction and adoption
programs

Citation: West's Ann. Cal. Penal Code § 597.2

Summary: This California statute sets forth the requirements for the sale of equines at a
private or public auction and that the minimum price must be above the animal's slaughter price.
It also provides that a sale to an individual who buys an equine under the personal use
provision shall submit a written statement declaring that the person is adopting the equine for
personal use and not for purposes of resale, resale for slaughter, or holding or transporting
the equine for slaughter.

Statute in Full:
(a) It shall be the duty of an officer of a pound, humane society, or animal regulation
department of a public agency to assist in a case involving the abandonment or voluntary
relinquishment of an equine by the equine's owner. This section does not require a pound, humane
society, or animal regulation department of a public agency to take actual possession of the
equine.

(b) If a pound, humane society, or animal regulation department of a public agency sells an
equine at a private or public auction or sale, it shall set the minimum bid for the sale of the
equine at a price above the current slaughter price of the equine.

(c) (1) This section does not prohibit a pound, humane society, or animal regulation department
of a public agency from placing an equine through an adoption program at an adoption fee that
may be set below current slaughter

(2) A person adopting an equine under paragraph (1) shall submit a written statement declaring
that the person is adopting the equine for personal use and not for purposes of resale, resale
for slaughter, or holding or transporting the equine for slaughter.

CREDIT(S)

(Added by Stats.1996, c. 804 (A.B.1221), § 1.)