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California Loony Laws

It is illegal to skateboard on walls "or other vertical surfaces" in Palo Alto.

Wearing a sweatshirt inside-out is deemed a "threatening misdemeanor" in Half-Moon Bay.

In 1930, the City Council of Ontario (California) passed an ordinance forbidding roosters to crow within the city limits.

In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time. (Loony Laws" by Robert Pelton)

In California, animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship. (Loony Laws" by Robert Pelton)

Peeling an orange in your hotel room is banned in California (Legal Lunacy)

San Francisco is said to be the only city in the nation to have ordinances guaranteeing sunshine to the masses.

In Cupertino, California, it is illegal to count backwards audibly in hexadecimal. According to Rick Kitson, Cupertino's Public Communications Manager, this law is not true. "Amongst many lists of strange laws is an item about Cupertino. Usually, this strange law has something to do with a prohibition on audibly counting backwards in hexadecimal. Our municipal codes are online so please feel free to confirm that there is no such law...in Cupertino. http://www.amlegal.com/cupertino_ca/," he writes.

Redwood City has outlawed the frying of gravy.

In Santa Clara, it is forbidden to dedicate parking spaces to the patron saint of television.

Prostitutes in San Francisco are not obliged to make change for bills larger than $50.

The city of Mountain View proscribes calling pet fish by "names of aggressive content, e.g. 'Biter', 'Killer', 'Sugar-Ray'"

Bicycles may not be ridden without "appropriate fashion accessories" anywhere in Santa Clara County (de facto law).

In Blythe, California, a person must own two cows in order to legally wear cowboy boots in public.

In Los Angeles, a man is legally entitled to beat his wife with a leather belt or strap, but the belt can't be wider than 2 inches, unless he has his wife's consent to beat her with a wider strap. (Loony Laws" by Robert Pelton)

It is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license.

Community leaders passed an ordinance that makes it illegal for anyone to try and stop a child from playfully jumping over puddles of water.

In L.A. it is against the law to complain through the mail that a hotel has cockroaches, even if it is true.

It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Blvd. at one time.

It is illegal to whistle for a lost canary before 7 am in Berkeley, CA.

In California, it is illegal to posses bear gall bladders.

In California, it is illegal to trip horses for entertainment.


These laws are culled from various print and online sources. There is a good chance that many of these have since been struck from the books, if they actually existed in the first place.

 

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