Decatur, GA Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 14-42 of the Decatur Code of Ordinances requires a police department permit before any person may have, keep, or maintain any wild, exotic, dangerous, or nondomestic animal or reptile inside the city, with the fee set by the city's schedule of fees and charges rather than fixed in the ordinance itself. Section 14-43 gives the police chief broad discretion over that permit: it may be issued only when, in the chief's opinion, the animal can be kept without menacing the safety of people or property, and the department can attach conditions such as requiring the animal to be properly caged or secured.

The same section lets the chief revoke a previously issued permit at any time, either for a violation of the article or police department rules, or simply because the chief later concludes the animal now menaces public safety. Decatur's definitions elsewhere in the animal chapter reinforce how broad this reaches: § 14-31 defines domesticated animals to include domesticated wild animals and exotic animals kept as companion animals, meaning even an exotic pet kept purely as a household companion still needs the § 14-42 permit rather than falling under the general pet rules for cats and dogs. There is no list of categorically prohibited species in the Code; the police department's case-by-case permit is the entire control mechanism.