Conway, AR Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 6.08.06.A defines innately wild animals broadly as lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, panthers, bears, wolves, and other non-domestic carnivores, noting that their wildness can awaken suddenly even if it seems dormant, and that leaving an animal off the list does not exempt it. Subsection B extends the ban to the entire order Carnivora, meat-eating animals, while expressly excluding domestic breeds of dogs and cats. Subsection C spells out the covered families in detail: bears, wolves and coyotes and foxes, hyenas, lions and tigers and leopards and cougars and bobcats and ocelots and lynx, raccoons, weasels and skunks, and civets, plus non-human primates such as monkeys and great apes, and venomous reptile families including cobras, coral snakes, sea snakes, vipers, rattlesnakes, and gila monsters.

Unlike Conway's kennel and rescue permit system, there is no licensing path around this ban; Subsection D flatly prohibits possessing, maintaining, or keeping any of these animals within the city. The only accommodation is a short window in Subsection E: once notified, an owner has three days to remove the animal from Conway before any penalty for violating the section can be imposed.