Abington, PA Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 58-11 is deliberately broad: the classifications it lists 'shall be broadly construed,' and the introductory line bars maintaining, keeping or possessing any listed animal anywhere in the Township, with no exception for a private enclosure or a rural lot. The list spans primates (apes, baboons, old-world monkeys), big cats (lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, snow leopards, pumas), large mammals (bears, bison, elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, swine), canids (wolves, coyotes), and dangerous reptiles and fish (all poisonous animals including rear-fanged snakes, constrictor snakes six feet or longer, crocodilians 30 inches or longer, sharks and piranha).

Game cocks kept for fighting are prohibited outright as well. Section 58-12 draws a line between that absolute ban and a second tier of animals the Board of Animal Regulation may permit case by case, such as foxes, raccoons, skunks, otters, smaller monkeys, iguanas and crocodilians under 30 inches; an applicant for that permit needs a veterinarian's health certificate, a description of the animal's quarters and Board approval, and the Board can revoke a permit at any time. Section 58-14 allows a narrow further exception for a licensed zoological garden or a temporary menagerie, capped at one month a year, to keep otherwise-prohibited species, but only with expert handlers, a 100-foot buffer from any residence, and liability insurance satisfactory to the Board. Outside those two narrow permit paths, simply possessing a § 58-11 animal is itself the violation, regardless of how it is housed.