Commerce City, CO Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Sec. 4-1001 defines "Wild or exotic animal" as any species that normally exists in a natural unconfined state and is usually not domesticated, expressly listing bears, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, opossums, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, raptors, game animals, wolves and wolf hybrids, and adds that alleged domestication of a wild or exotic animal does not change its status under the definition. Sec. 4-2008(c) then bans the conduct directly: with the exception of livestock or as otherwise expressly set forth in the code, it is unlawful for any person to own, possess, harbor, sell or in any manner traffic in any animal that is not a "domestic animal," except when the animal is in transit through the city to a destination outside it.

"Domestic animal" is separately defined in Sec. 4-1001 to list specific allowed species, dogs, cats, ferrets, nonpredatory captive-bred birds, fish, hermit crabs, snails, tarantulas, captive-bred rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters, chinchillas, African pygmy hedgehogs, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, and small nonpoisonous snakes, amphibians and reptiles, and it expressly excludes livestock, skunks, primates and any wild or exotic species. Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs get a narrow carve-out from the general ban under Sec. 4-2008(e): they may still be kept at a zoned agricultural operation, a veterinary hospital, a licensed educational facility, a licensed pet shop, or on a single residential parcel if limited to one pig under seventy pounds, domesticated, and spayed or neutered by six months.

Sec. 4-2008(a) and (b) separately ban vicious animals outright and heavily restrict dangerous animals, but those are conduct-based designations made by the municipal court, distinct from the species-based exotic animal ban in subsection (c).