Clearwater, FL Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Sec. 03, "Keeping of certain animals prohibited," makes it unlawful for any person to keep, harbor, raise or permit to run at large "an animal which by its nature is wild and untamed, bees, reptiles, fowl or livestock" on any property, public or private, within city limits. Unlike the fowl and livestock branch of this same sentence, the wild-and-untamed and reptile categories receive no matching relief in Sec. 04's list of exceptions: those exceptions cover research or teaching animals held under a governmental permit, licensed veterinary boarding, zoning-permitted agriculture, licensed riding academies and stables, recreational horse-keeping accessory to residential use, licensed resale establishments, animals in public parks or zoos, bird feeders, and CDC-regulated chickens.

None of those categories reaches a privately kept wild animal such as a big cat, primate, venomous snake or alligator. Sec. 04(9) does exempt animals "kept by the public" in a zoo or public park or "in their natural habitat," underscoring that private possession of a wild animal outside those settings falls squarely back under the Sec. 03 prohibition. Administration and enforcement runs through Sec. 02, which lets the city commission use the SPCA of Clearwater, a poundmaster, dogcatcher or other designees vested with special police powers, and requires the city manager to appoint qualified veterinarians as city rabies inspectors overseeing the chapter.