Clinton Township, MI Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

06, the Exotic or Wild Animal Regulatory Section, prohibits any person from possessing, breeding, exchanging, buying, selling or offering to buy or sell fourteen categories of animals, including nonhuman primates, venomous cold-blooded reptiles, all poisonous animals, constrictor snakes of six feet or more, wild cats such as bobcats, cougars, leopards and tigers, nondomesticated carnivores and their hybrid crosses, crocodilians, piranha, sharks, ostriches, poisonous spiders and venomous insects, elephants, rhinoceros-type odd-toed ungulates, and camel-type even-toed ungulates. The ban reaches ownership itself, not just commercial sale: anyone who owned a listed animal on the section's effective date had only 30 days to remove it from the Township.

Four narrow categories are exempt: zoological parks and aquariums accredited by the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, wildlife sanctuaries, nature preserves, circuses, and bona fide scientific, medical or educational research facilities. 20(f) and (g) require Macomb County Animal Control to inspect any premises housing a permitted exotic or wild animal annually and without a warrant, except areas used solely for human habitation. 06 is declared a nuisance per se that the Township can abate through a separate Circuit Court action in addition to criminal prosecution, giving the Township two independent enforcement tracks against a noncompliant owner.