republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-797.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Motor vehicles: rescue or provision of care for animal: civil and criminal liability."
description: "Existing law authorizes a peace officer, humane officer, or animal control officer to take all steps reasonably necessary to remove an animal from a motor vehicle because the animal's safety appears to be in immediate danger of specified harm. Existing law requires those persons who remove an animal from a vehicle to take the animal to an animal shelter or other place of safekeeping or, if deemed necessary, to a veterinary hospital for treatment, and to leave a notice in the vehicle that notifies the owner of, among other things, the location where the animal may be claimed. Existing law authorizes the owner to claim the animal only after paying all charges that have accrued for the maintenance, care, medical treatment, or impoundment of the animal."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 797"
citation: "California AB 797 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Motor vehicles: rescue or provision of care for animal: civil and criminal liability."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Steinorth"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 34
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2015-02-26"
last_action: "2016-09-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/fcf9c9f7-4453-4f88-af70-50bab44b47ef"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797"
source_hash: "e121385852dd41eeb2d301964d9724df770ef44c57c2c769d770420859281664"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 797 (20152016) — Motor vehicles: rescue or provision of care for animal: civil and criminal liability.

Existing law authorizes a peace officer, humane officer, or animal control officer to take all steps reasonably necessary to remove an animal from a motor vehicle because the animal's safety appears to be in immediate danger of specified harm. Existing law requires those persons who remove an animal from a vehicle to take the animal to an animal shelter or other place of safekeeping or, if deemed necessary, to a veterinary hospital for treatment, and to leave a notice in the vehicle that notifies the owner of, among other things, the location where the animal may be claimed. Existing law authorizes the owner to claim the animal only after paying all charges that have accrued for the maintenance, care, medical treatment, or impoundment of the animal.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/26/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79799INT)
2. **04/06/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79798AMD)
3. **05/23/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79795AMD)
4. **06/06/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79794AMD)
5. **08/01/16 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79793AMD)
6. **08/17/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79797AMD)
7. **08/31/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79796AMD)
8. **09/24/16 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79791CHP)
9. **AB797** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797)
10. **08/29/16 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB797&version=20150AB79792ENR)

## Votes

- AB 797 STEINORTH Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Rules] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- With recommendation: That Senate amendments be concurred in. — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB797 Steinorth By Glazer — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 797 STEINORTH Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Steinorth — primary (person)
- Anderson — coauthor (person)
- Atkins — coauthor (person)
- Bloom — coauthor (person)
- Brown — coauthor (person)
- Campos — coauthor (person)
- Chang — coauthor (person)
- Chiu — coauthor (person)
- Chávez — coauthor (person)
- Cristina Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Eduardo Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Glazer — principal coauthor (person)
- Lackey — coauthor (person)
- Maienschein — coauthor (person)
- McCarty — coauthor (person)
- Pavley — coauthor (person)
- Quirk — principal coauthor (person)
- Santiago — author (person)
- Waldron — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-26** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-27** From printer. May be heard in committee March 29.
- **2015-03-12** Referred to Com. on A. & A.R. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on A. & A.R. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-07** Re-referred to Com. on A. & A.R. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (April 15). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-22** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 22). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-23** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1225.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-30** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-14** Referred to Com. on G.O. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-08** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2015-06-19** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2015-08-17** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on G.O. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-08-18** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2015-08-18** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2015-08-31** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-01-28** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2016-05-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-06-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on RLS. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 14). Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-06-15** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2016-06-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2016-06-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-01** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-02** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2016-08-15** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 4969.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2016-08-16** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 18 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2016-08-18** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. `referral-committee`
- **2016-08-24** From committee: That the Senate amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (August 23). `committee-passage`
- **2016-08-25** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 6282.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2016-09-01** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2016-09-24** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2016-09-24** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 554, Statutes of 2016.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/fcf9c9f7-4453-4f88-af70-50bab44b47ef`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).