Granted I'm not in California, but is this actually an issue? As someone with fairly intense dog/cat allergies it's actually been really hard to find NON-pet-friendly places to rent - those seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
It seems like different areas of the country have different rental "cultures". Where I live now it's incredibly difficult to find a pet-friendly apartment, with or without any sort of fee or deposit. And most locals think it's normal and well justified. In the places I've lived previously it was mostly just restrictions on large dogs or reasonable limits to the number of pets. I've spent my entire life around pets (both my own and those of family/roommates). It feels VERY weird to me that the many people here don't consider owning pets a normal lifestyle choice many people make even if they're not in a position to own their own home.