High Point, NC Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 12-2-4 flatly prohibits keeping lions, tigers, elephants, bears, or "other nondomesticated animals" in any residential area of the city, a catch-all phrase that reaches beyond the four named species to any wild animal kept as a pet in a home setting. The only stated exception covers animals housed in a municipal zoo. S. 160A-187, the enabling statute that lets High Point adopt a ban stricter than state law requires. Because the prohibition is written to apply specifically to "residential" areas, the plain text does not by itself reach a nondomesticated animal kept in a commercially or industrially zoned part of the city, though other nuisance, zoning, or state exotic-animal statutes could still apply there.

Enforcement runs through the animal chapter's general penalty section, § 12-2-5: a violation carries a fixed $50 civil penalty, and if that charge isn't paid within 10 days it becomes delinquent and exposes the owner to a civil debt action in court, plus an additional $50 penalty if the owner settles only after the city has already filed suit. The city tax collector administers payment, and all penalty proceeds go into the city's general fund.