zoology basically means the study of animals, and that can take you a lot of places...

It does not refer to being a zoo keeper, but that is certainly one of the careers that could come out of a zoology major.

Check out this page for a long, but I really don't think comprehensive list of possible careers for a zoology major:
http://www.science.siu.edu/zoology/zoology-careers.html

As far as not being available in So. Cal., I'm not sure what you mean. In a few minutes I was able to get this list of schools in CA (didn't take the time to limit it to So. Cal.) that offer zoology majors. Also, at many schools that don't offer an official zoology major, you could major in biology and simply choose to focus in zoology.

Cal State Polytechnic Univ., Pomona
CSU Fresno
CSU Long Beach
Cerritos College, Norwalk
Chabot College, Hayward
El Camino College, Torrance
Fullerton College
Humboldt State Univ., Arcata
Palomar College, San Marcos
San Bernardino Valley College
San Francisco Stage Univ.
Sonoma Stage Univ., Rohnert Park
UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara