Dog License in Los Angeles

Why the answer is local, and why a ZIP code does not settle it

Who issues a dog license, and who they really are

• Los Angeles Animal Services licenses the City of Los Angeles, and also Beverly Hills: the city has licensed dogs for Beverly Hills residents since February 1, 2009, which it states on its own licensing page.
• Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control licenses all of the unincorporated county, plus 34 contract cities on its own fee schedule. It is the only agency here that states a microchip requirement of its own.
• Southeast Area Animal Control Authority is a joint powers authority its member cities formed together, and it covers 14 of them. It is the only agency here that states a deadline for somebody who has just moved in.
• Long Beach Animal Care Services licenses Long Beach and its two contract cities, Cerritos and Signal Hill.
• Pasadena Humane, Inland Valley Humane Society & SPCA and San Gabriel Valley Humane Society are private nonprofits issuing licenses under contract to cities, 21 between them.
• Santa Monica, Torrance, Redondo Beach and Duarte each handle their own, three of them through an outside licensing vendor rather than at a city counter.

What a license costs

$9 to $35

A one-year license for an altered dog

Across the 48 cities whose agency publishes a figure. Lowest in Rolling Hills, highest in Montebello.

$18 to $250

The same license for an unaltered dog

Same 48 cities. Long Beach, Cerritos, Signal Hill charge the top figure.

11

Agencies issuing dog licenses

Across the 78 cities on this page, three of them private shelters under contract.

What the City of Los Angeles charges

What Long Beach charges

What each agency requires

• Rabies, everywhere. A locality must ensure, as a condition of licensing, that dogs receive rabies vaccinations, no more often than annually, at three months of age or older, with vaccines approved, and at intervals prescribed, by the Department of Public Health.
• Spayed or neutered: the City of Los Angeles and the County. Yes. The department cites Los Angeles Municipal Code 53.15.2(b), and a moratorium on new dog breeding permits has been in effect since May 27, 2024 under 53.15.2(f). The County requires the same for all dogs and cats. Everywhere else, sterilization earns the lower fee and is not a condition of the license.
• Microchipped: the County alone. Yes. The same sentence requires all dogs and cats to be microchipped, which makes this the only agency on this page that states a microchip requirement of its own. None of the other ten pages states a microchip requirement, which is an absence rather than a no: those pages do not mention one.
• Long Beach asks for its cats to be altered, which it cites to its own municipal code, while its dogs may be unaltered at a fee of their own.
• Pasadena has a sterilization rule of its own, separate from licensing, under Pasadena Municipal Code 6.09.010. It reaches that one city rather than the whole Pasadena Humane service area.

When to license after you move

1. From four months old

   California's floor, under every agency on this page. A locality in a rabies area must provide for the licensing of dogs starting at four months old, and every county in the state has been one since 1987.

   California Attorney General, Opinion 14-603, read 2026-11-01

2. Within 30 days of moving in

   Southeast Area Animal Control Authority is the only agency here that states a deadline for a new arrival: within 30 days of the dog reaching four months, or within 30 days of moving into the city.

   SEAACA, City License Information, read 2026-11-01

3. From three months old

   Torrance asks a month earlier than the state floor and than every other agency on this page.

   City of Torrance, Pet License, read 2026-11-01

4. No deadline stated

   The City of Los Angeles requires a license for every dog over four months old and states no separate period for somebody who has just moved in. Nor do the County, Long Beach, the three humane societies, Santa Monica or Redondo Beach.

   Each agency's own licensing page, read 2026-11-01

Cats

• Required in the unincorporated county and in most of the County's contract cities, in Long Beach, and in Bradbury.
• Voluntary in several of the County's contract cities, which its fee schedule marks, and in Glendale, the Glendale portion of La Crescenta-Montrose, Bellflower, South El Monte and Torrance.
• Not a thing at all in the City of Los Angeles. No cat license. The department names dogs and horses, meaning any equine, as the animals required to be licensed in the City of Los Angeles, and names no license for a cat.
• Not stated by the two humane societies, which say a cat license is required in some of their cities without naming which, and by Santa Monica and Redondo Beach.

What happens if you do not license

• Long Beach publishes the schedule. After 60 days a late penalty is assessed, and after 90 days citations may be issued. Each day a violation exists is a separate offense: $100 for the first, $200 for a second of the same section within a year, and $250 or $500 for any after that.
• The County charges for being brought into compliance. Failure to vaccinate or license a dog or cat may result in fines or penalties. Failing to renew can add a late penalty equal to the cost of the license. The department publishes no fine amount for an unlicensed dog.
• SEAACA has a renewal window. Renewals are annual and a penalty applies where a renewal is not paid within 30 days of its due date.
• The two humane societies say "additional fees" and no amount. Both the Inland Valley Humane Society and the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society state that having an unlicensed dog over four months old on the property results in additional fees, and neither publishes what those fees are, so the figure is whatever the office quotes when it calls.
• The City of Los Angeles publishes no fine for an unlicensed dog. What it does state is that a license is valid only while the rabies vaccination behind it is still effective.

Which agency licenses which city

Cities this page cannot answer for

• Avalon
• Burbank
• Commerce
• Culver City
• El Segundo
• Gardena
• Hawthorne
• Hermosa Beach
• Huntington Park
• La Puente
• Lawndale
• Lynwood
• Manhattan Beach
• Rosemead

The rest of what California asks of a new resident