Jackson, MS Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Sec. 18-8(b) states flatly that "No person shall keep or permit to be kept any wild animal as a pet," a blanket prohibition with no size or species carve-out. Sec. 18-8(a) separately bars keeping or permitting a wild animal to be kept on anyone's premises, or in any roadside zoo or pet store, for display or exhibition purposes, whether the exhibitor charges a fee or not; that subsection expressly does not apply to zoological parks, performing animal exhibitions, or circuses. Sec. 18-8(c) gives the superintendent of animal control the power to release, order the release, or seize any wild animal being kept in violation of Chapter 18, federal law, or state statute, meaning enforcement does not require a criminal conviction first before the animal can be removed.

Chapter 18's Sec. 18-1 definitions describe an "animal" broadly as any live, vertebrate creature, domestic or wild, so the wild-animal ban covers any non-domesticated vertebrate species someone might try to keep as a household pet, from big cats to venomous reptiles. A related but distinct rule, Sec. 18-9, imposes confinement and muzzling duties on any "vicious animal" as determined by the superintendent of animal control, and bars displaying a vicious animal for exhibition on the same terms as Sec. 18-8(a); that section covers dangerous domestic animals rather than wild species and is enforced separately from the wild-animal ban.