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Cal. PEN § 597u

This is the official text of Cal. PEN § 597u, part of California’s Penal Code — defines crimes and sets criminal procedure in California.

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Official statutory text

(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.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.