California Trapping Rules

What This Page Is

This page quotes the text of one regulation and four statutes and does nothing else with them. It is not legal advice. It does not tell you to trap anything, not to trap anything, or what to do with an animal in a trap. Where the text is silent, this page says it is silent and stops there.

Where the text came from, and its limits. The regulation was read from the Cornell Legal Information Institute mirror of the California Code of Regulations on August 22, 2026. Cornell is not the official publisher of the California Code of Regulations, and the official electronic publisher served no text to us on that date. The mirror prints its own caveat, that state regulations are updated quarterly. The section’s own history note reads “amendment of subsections (b) and (e) and amendment of NOTE filed 5-29-2024” (as of operative 7/1/2024). The four Fish and Game Code sections were read from California Legislative Information, which is the official publisher of the codes.

Regulations change, and this page is a snapshot of one day. The current text of the section, and any local ordinance that may also apply, are matters for the reader to check directly. Every URL used is listed in full at the foot of this page.

What Counts as a Trap

Subsection (a), headed Traps Defined, states:

• “Traps are defined to include padded-jaw leg-hold, steel-jawed leg-hold, and conibear traps, snares, dead-falls, cage traps” — § 465.5(a)
• “designed to confine, hold, grasp, grip, clamp or crush animals’ bodies or body parts” — § 465.5(a)

Body-Gripping Traps

Subsection (c) is headed Prohibition on Trapping for the Purposes of Recreation or Commerce in Fur. It both prohibits and defines.

• “It is unlawful for any person to trap for the purposes of recreation or commerce in fur” — § 465.5(c)
• “with any body-gripping trap” — § 465.5(c)
• “A body-gripping trap is one that grips the mammal’s body or body part” — § 465.5(c)
• “including, but not limited to, steel-jawed leg-hold traps, padded-jaw leg-hold traps, conibear traps, and snares” — § 465.5(c)
• “Cage and box traps, nets, suitcase-type live beaver traps, and common rat and mouse traps” — § 465.5(c)
• “shall not be considered body-gripping traps” — § 465.5(c)

Steel-Jawed Leg-Hold Traps

Subsection (e) is headed Prohibition on Use of Steel-jawed Leg-hold Traps by Individuals.

• “It is unlawful for any person to use or authorize the use of any steel-jawed leg-hold trap” — § 465.5(e)
• “padded or otherwise, to capture any game mammal, exotic game mammal, furbearing mammal” — § 465.5(e)
• “nongame mammal, protected mammal, or any dog or cat” — § 465.5(e)

Subsection (e)(1) carries an exception: “does not apply to federal, state, county, or municipal government employees or their duly authorized agents” — § 465.5(e)(1), and only “in the extraordinary case where the otherwise prohibited padded-jaw leg-hold trap is the only method available” — § 465.5(e)(1). The engineering specifications that subsection attaches to such traps are in the regulation and are not reproduced here.

Purposes Unrelated to Fur

Subsection (g) deals with conibear traps, snares, cage and box traps, nets, suitcase-type live beaver traps and common rat and mouse traps used for purposes unrelated to recreation or commerce in fur.

• “may be used by individuals to take authorized mammals” — § 465.5(g)
• “including, but not limited to, the protection of property” — § 465.5(g)
• “Except for common rat and mouse traps, all traps used pursuant to this subsection must be numbered” — § 465.5(g)

The numbering that subsection refers back to is set by subsection (f)(1): “shall obtain a trap number issued by and registered with the department” — § 465.5(f)(1), and “All traps, before being put into use, shall bear only the current registered trap number” — § 465.5(f)(1).

Trap Visitation

Subsection (g)(2) is headed Trap Visitation Requirement.

• “All traps shall be visited at least once daily by the owner of the traps or his/her designee.” — § 465.5(g)(2)
• “Such designee shall carry on his/her person written authorization, as owner’s representative” — § 465.5(g)(2)
• “Each time traps are checked all trapped animals shall be removed.” — § 465.5(g)(2)

Immediate Dispatch or Release

Subsection (g)(1) carries the heading “Immediate Dispatch or Release.” — § 465.5(g)(1). Its operative sentences are these.

• “All furbearing and nongame mammals that are legal to trap must be immediately killed or released.” — § 465.5(g)(1)
• “Unless released, trapped animals shall be killed by shooting” — § 465.5(g)(1)
• “where local ordinances, landowners, and safety permit” — § 465.5(g)(1)
• “does not prohibit employees of federal, state, or local government from using chemical euthanasia” — § 465.5(g)(1)

What the text specifies is timing, not place. The words on site, at the site, on the property, where captured and point of capture do not appear anywhere in § 465.5. This page records that and draws nothing from it.

Trap Placement

Subsection (g)(3) is headed Trap Placement Requirement.

• “Traps may not be set within 150 yards of any structure used as a permanent or temporary residence” — § 465.5(g)(3)
• “unless such traps are set by a person controlling such property” — § 465.5(g)(3)

Subsections (g)(4) and (g)(5) place further restrictions on conibear-type traps and snares, including named geographic zones described road by road over several thousand words. Those boundaries are in the regulation and are not reproduced or summarized here.

Statutory Penalty

Subsection (h) is headed Statutory Penalty for Violation of Provisions.

• “Violation of Section 3003.1 or 3003.2 of the Fish and Game Code, or any rule or regulation” — § 465.5(h)
• “is punishable by a fine of not less than three hundred dollars” — § 465.5(h)
• “or more than two thousand dollars” — § 465.5(h)
• “or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by both” — § 465.5(h)

The Two Statutes Read Together

Fish and Game Code § 4150(a) supplies a definition:

• “A mammal occurring naturally in California that is not a game mammal, exotic game mammal, fully protected mammal, or fur-bearing mammal is a nongame mammal.” — FGC § 4150(a)
• “A nongame mammal may not be taken or possessed except as provided in this code” — FGC § 4150(a)
• “or in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission” — FGC § 4150(a)

Fish and Game Code § 4152(a) is the section most often quoted in part, and the qualifying clause belongs in the same sentence as the permission. The text reads that mammals “found to be injuring growing crops or other property may be taken at any time or in any manner in accordance with this code and regulations adopted pursuant to this code” — FGC § 4152(a). The subsection continues “by the owner or tenant of the premises” — FGC § 4152(a), or “employees and agents in immediate possession of written permission from the owner or tenant” — FGC § 4152(a), and opens with “Except as provided in Section 4005” — FGC § 4152(a).

Section 465.5 appears on the reference list printed in its own authority note alongside sections 4150 and 4152 of the Fish and Game Code, which is why the two are set out together here.

Which Animals Are Named

Section 465.5 does not name a skunk, an opossum or a raccoon anywhere in its text. Searched word by word across the section, each returns no occurrence. The section reaches animals by class instead, and subsection (b), headed Affected Mammals Defined, is where the class comes from:

• “furbearing mammals, game mammals, exotic game mammals, nongame mammals, and protected mammals” — § 465.5(b)
• “are those mammals so defined by statute on July 1, 2024, in sections 3950, 3965, 4000, 4150 and 4700 of the Fish and Game Code” — § 465.5(b)

Following that cross-reference, Fish and Game Code § 4000 reads in full:

“The following are fur-bearing mammals: pine marten, fisher, mink, river otter, gray fox, red fox, kit fox, raccoon, beaver, badger, and muskrat.” — FGC § 4000

The raccoon is listed there by name. A skunk and an opossum appear neither in Section 4000 nor in the list of game mammals at Section 3950, which reads “Game mammals are: deer ... elk ... prong-horned antelope ... black and brown or cinnamon bears” — FGC § 3950(a), continuing through mountain lions, jackrabbits and varying hares, cottontails, brush rabbits, pygmy rabbits and tree squirrels. Section 3950 also states “This section shall become operative on July 1, 2024.” — FGC § 3950(c), which is the date subsection (b) above refers to.

That is the whole of what the quoted text establishes about these three animals, and this page goes no further with it.

What the Section Does Not Contain

Section 465.5 contains no provision on relocation or transport. Searching the text of the section returns no occurrence of relocate, of relocation, of transport, of off the property or of off-site, and the only three occurrences of the word release sit inside subsection (g)(1), quoted above. That is a statement about the text of this one section and nothing more. It is not a statement that moving an animal is lawful. Other sections of the same title, other statutes, and local ordinances may apply, and this page does not examine them.

Questions

Sources

Every quotation above carries its subsection or section citation in the same line. The regulation was read from a mirror and the statutes from their official publisher, and each is labeled accordingly below. Framing and ordering are our own; no characterization of the law by any third party was used in preparing this page.

1. California Code of Regulations, via Cornell Legal Information Institute. Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 14, § 465.5 — Use of Traps. READ FROM A MIRROR: Cornell Legal Information Institute, not the official publisher. The mirror states that regulations are updated quarterly. History note: operative 7/1/2024. Read August 22, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/14-CCR-465.5
2. California Legislative Information (official publisher). California Fish and Game Code § 3950 — Game mammals. Accessed August 22, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FGC&sectionNum=3950
3. California Legislative Information (official publisher). California Fish and Game Code § 4000 — Fur-bearing mammals. Accessed August 22, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FGC&sectionNum=4000
4. California Legislative Information (official publisher). California Fish and Game Code § 4150 — Nongame mammals. Accessed August 22, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FGC&sectionNum=4150
5. California Legislative Information (official publisher). California Fish and Game Code § 4152 — Take of mammals injuring crops or property. Accessed August 22, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FGC&sectionNum=4152