Trespassing: animal enclosures at zoos, circuses, and traveling animal exhibits.

Under existing law, every person who willfully enters and occupies real property without the consent of the owner, owner's agent, or person in lawful possession, is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would, with exemptions for employees and public officers, make it an infraction or a misdemeanor to enter an animal enclosure at a zoo, defined to include a public aquarium, or at a circus or traveling animal exhibit, if posted as specified to prohibit entrance, without the consent of the governing authority of the zoo, circus, or traveling animal exhibit, or a representative of that governing authority. Because this bill would create a new crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 19.8 of the Penal Code proposed by AB 451 and AB 1829, to be operative only if this bill and one or both of the other bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2011, and this bill is chaptered last. 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.