Disaster preparedness: local government: animal natural disaster evacuation plan.

Under existing law, the Office of Emergency Services, in coordination with all interested state agencies with designated response roles in the state emergency plan and interested local emergency management agencies, is required to jointly establish by regulation a standardized emergency management system for use by all emergency response agencies. Existing law requires the office to approve and adopt, and incorporate the California Animal Response Emergency System (CARES) program developed under the oversight of the Department of Food and Agriculture into the standardized emergency management system. This bill would require a city or county that requires a kennel license or permit to operate a kennel within its jurisdiction, to require, as a condition for obtaining the kennel license or permit, that the kennel owner create and submit to the city or county an animal natural disaster evacuation plan for any kennel covered by the license or permit. By imposing a new duty on local government, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.