Gaston County, NC Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Sec. 3-5(f) of the Gaston County Code of Ordinances flatly bars residents of the unincorporated county from keeping a wild animal on their premises unless that animal was registered with the county before January 1, 1999, a grandfather clause that closed more than 25 years ago. The definition at Sec. 3-2 sweeps in far more than tigers and cobras: it covers any species 'normally found in the wild state, particularly those feral, aggressive, able to harbor or transmit disease, dangerous, or non-domesticated,' and lists deer, non-human primates, bats, wolves and wolf hybrids, hyenas, bears, elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, exotic wild cattle, crocodilians, venomous reptiles, constrictor snakes, raccoons and skunks as examples.

Farm animals, aquarium fish, birds and insects are carved out of the definition entirely, and the ban does not reach zoological parks, animal exhibitions, circuses, or museums, laboratories and educational or scientific institutions using reptiles in the course of legitimate work, nor individuals holding the appropriate state or federal license. Enforcement runs through the county's animal control officers under Sec. 3-4, who can take up an animal kept in violation and deliver it to the county shelter. S. 14-4 and 153A-123 plus a civil penalty of up to $500 per offense under Sec.

3-13(a), and each day the wild animal remains on the premises is charged as a separate offense. The county can also pursue an equitable-remedy injunction under Sec. 3-14 ordering the animal removed from the property. Because the county code, not the state Captive Wildlife Safety Act referenced inside the definition, supplies the operative prohibition, this is a true local ban layered on top of any separate state licensing scheme for the same species.