Safari West, Inc. California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

What the filing says

These are the details as Safari West, Inc.reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and these figures come from the state's report as retrieved on Aug 13, 2026.

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war — far narrower than federal law's three. Who is covered and how the thresholds are counted is in our California WARN Act guide.

Safari West severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the notice pay the WARN Act describes. Severance you were already promised — in a contract, a handbook, or a union agreement — cannot be used to satisfy that obligation, though Labor Code section 1402 does let an employer reduce a back-pay award by voluntary payments it was never required to make. A release may also give up more than you expect. Justin reviews severance agreements before workers sign. What to check before you decide is in our full guide to the California WARN Act.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now — WARN money does not reduce it, and the filings here run through Apr 21, 2026, so you do not have to wait for your last day. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

What your notice was required to include

Timing is only half of what Labor Code section 1401 asks for. The notice itself has to contain specific things, and California added most of this list for notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. This notice falls after that date. If you kept your copy, read it against the full six-item checklist in our WARN Act guide — everything federal law requires, whether transition help is being coordinated, working contact details for your workforce board and for the employer itself, and CalFresh information.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something from that list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached — whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

Where a layoff can raise a legal question

A layoff is lawful on its own, and nothing below is a statement about Safari West. These are the places California law can still come into play, depending on the facts of your own situation.

• The severance you were asked to signA release can give up claims you did not know you had, and the terms are sometimes negotiable.
• How you were selectedA reduction in force still cannot be used to cut someone for a protected reason such as age, disability, pregnancy, or a complaint they made.
• Your final paycheckCalifornia sets when final wages are due at termination, and unpaid time or accrued vacation can carry penalties on top of the wages.
• The length of the notice periodWhere a notice period turns out to fall short of what the law required, the question usually belongs to everyone in the same position rather than to one person.

General information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

Although the state filing describes a permanent closure, KRON4 reported that Safari West is set to remain open: after 35 years as a privately operated wildlife preserve, the 400-acre Santa Rosa park is transitioning to a California nonprofit public benefit corporation under the newly formed Safari West Zoological Society.

Edhat reported that while the WARN filing stated Safari West would permanently close, the preserve announced the move as a change in operational structure toward nonprofit stewardship, saying safari tours and overnight stays are expected to proceed as scheduled, the current team remains in place, and the park will continue operating under its existing name.

KSRO, citing the North Bay Business Journal, reported that founders Peter and Nancy Lang are guiding the transition and that once nonprofit status is finalized, the society will be able to accept tax-deductible donations and grants to support the preserve's more than 900 animals.

Sources: KRON4 (opens in a new tab) · Edhat (opens in a new tab) · KSRO (opens in a new tab)

Recent coverage

Coverage of Safari West matched by our news monitor. These are the publishers' own reports, not the filing, and we have not independently verified them.

• 35-Year-Old California Safari-Style Wildlife Park to Layoff 134 Employees (opens in a new tab) — edhat, Feb 25, 2026

What the numbers show

• The 134 affected positions are in Santa Rosa.
• The notice is filed as a closure rather than a partial reduction, meaning the site itself is shutting down.
• The shortest gap between notice and last day here is 57 days, close to the statewide median of 61 days across every notice on file.
• Within Sonoma County, this accounts for 26% of all workers covered by WARN notices on file, across 15 employers.
• By headcount it sits in the top 30% of the 599 employer layoffs tracked here.
• The 134 workers leaving Safari West, Inc. re-enter a job market where Sonoma County unemployment stood at 4.2% in June 2026, below the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Safari West.

Free job-search help near Santa Rosa

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; this is the closest to the site in this filing.

• North Bay Workforce Services (opens in a new tab)

  606 Healdsburg Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 · 707-576-2850

  Affiliate center (partial services) · about 7.8 miles from the Santa Rosa site

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Sonoma County around the same time

15 employers have WARN notices on file in Sonoma County, covering 512 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

• Constellation Brands, Inc.219 workers
• Amy's Drive-Thru55 workers
• Small Precision Tools California, Inc.30 workers
• Pernod Ricard Kenwood Holding LLC14 workers
• Jackson Family Wines13 workers

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.