You don't have to wait until July 1st if the cottontails are causing serious injury or damage to the plants and you have the landowner's written permission.
California Fish and Game states: "A ruling by the Attorney General in 2006 now authorizes that cottontails and brush rabbits may be killed at any time if they are found to be damaging landscaping, ornamental plants, crops and/or gardens (FGC Section 4186.)"
https://californiaou...ation-2/page/4/Here's the initial California Attorney General's opinion dated April 27, 2004. Note that "material harm" to plants is required, not just nibbling on the lawn.
"We conclude that cottontail and brush rabbits that are eating landscaping, ornamental plants, or gardens may be trapped or killed if it can be established that they are materially harming such plants." http://ag.ca.gov/opi...pdfs/03-806.pdfIn a later opinion 06-109 published on January 5, 2007, the California Attorney General said that it was lawful for a homeowner's association to control an infestation of cottontails that was materially harming landscaping by hiring people to shoot the rabbits with high powered air rifles even though it was not hunting season. If it's part of a pest control effort, no hunting license is required from Fish and Game because it's not hunting -- it's pest control.
http://ag.ca.gov/cms...1-11_06-109.pdf"In essence, we reasoned that if rabbits are causing material harm to crops, including ornamental plants, they constitute "pests" rather than "game." (Id. at p. 47.) Consequently, the restrictions on hunting birds and mammals contained in the Fish and Game Code, as implemented and enforced by the Commission and Department, do not apply to the trapping or killing of rabbits as part of a "pest" control effort. No hunting license or other specific authorization from the Commission or the Department is required to control an infestation of rabbits. (Id. at p. 46.) By the same token, the Commission and the Department do not have the statutory authority to prohibit the use of pest control methods to eradicate an infestation of rabbits."California Fish and Game Code Section 4186 (last modified: February 13, 2012) states:
"Nothing in this code prohibits the owner or tenant of land, or any person authorized in writing by that owner or tenant, from taking cottontail or brush rabbits during any time of the year when damage to crops or forage is being experienced on that land. Any person other than the owner or tenant of the land shall have in possession when transporting rabbits from the property, written authority from the owner or tenant of land where those rabbits were taken. Rabbits taken under this section shall not be sold."
If you shoot the cottontails before July 1st in order to prevent or control depredation, make sure you have in your possession written permission of the landowner stating that you are authorized to shoot the cottontails to control depredation and prevent material harm to crops or landscaping.
