Spencer

On this appeal from the granting in part of a motion pursuant to section 995 of the Penal Code, 1 the People contend that the trial court erred in holding that a bison is not a bovine animal within the meaning of subdivision 3 of section 487 of the Penal Code.

*565 Section 487 provides in relevant part: “Grand theft is theft committed in any of the following cases: ... 3. When the property taken is . . . any bovine animal. . . .” Provisions of the Penal Code are “to be construed according to the fair import of their terms, with a view to effect its objects and to promote justice.” (Pen. Code, § 4.) Statutory language is reasonably certain if it can be understood with the aid of reference to the dictionary. (People v. Medina (1972) 27 Cal.App.3d 473, 479 [ 103 Cal.Rptr. 721 ].)

The animals in question were bison or buffalo. The term “buffalo” includes “any of several wild oxen: as ... a member of the genus Bison:esp: a large shaggy-maned No. American wild ox . . . called also bison.” (Webster’s Third New Internat. Dist. (unabridged 1965) p. 290.) “Bison” is defined as “any of several large shaggy-maned usu. gregarious recent or extinct bovine mammals constituting the…