Okaloosa County, FL Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Land Development Code § 2.21.05.10 regulates livestock, poultry, and beekeeping as residential accessory uses, and subsection (d) carves out household pets from those rules with a definition that does double duty as the county's exotic-animal line: "Pet" means any animal kept for companionship or amusement rather than utility, burden, or associated with food products or food production, and which is not otherwise regulated by this code and which is not classified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) as a Class I or Class II wildlife species, a Class III Wildlife Species not exempt from FWC permitting, a Conditional Non-native Wildlife species, or a venomous reptile.

That wording means an animal on FWC's Class I list, such as large cats or bears that pose a serious public safety risk, or the Class II list, such as alligators or wolves, never qualifies as a "pet" under the accessory-use section, no matter how it is kept, so it cannot rely on the county's blanket "keeping of domesticated animals as pets" permission listed among residential accessory uses in § 2.21.02(1)(k). The same exclusion reaches any Class III species the owner has not obtained an FWC exemption for, any species on FWC's Conditional Non-native Wildlife list, and venomous reptiles across the board. Because the Land Development Code does not separately license or zone these animals itself, the practical control comes entirely from FWC's own captive-wildlife permitting under Florida law rather than from a county zoning permit or accessory-use approval.