Kershaw County, SC Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 4-13(a) makes it unlawful to keep or permit to be kept on one's premises any wild or vicious animal for display or exhibition purposes, whether for free or for a fee, though the ban does not reach zoological parks or performing animal exhibitions and circuses. Subsection (b) separately bars keeping any wild animal as a pet except as allowed under state law. Subsection (c) defines which animals are deemed wild per se, removing any ambiguity for enforcement: all nondomestic members of the family Felidae, wolves and wolf-dog hybrids containing any percentage of wolf, coyotes, foxes, bears, alligators, crocodiles, caimans, scorpions, and venomous reptiles.

Kershaw County Animal Control enforces this section alongside the rest of Chapter 4, and a wild animal kept in violation can be seized under Sec. 4-11's search-warrant and right-of-entry procedure, which sets a magistrate hearing within ten days of seizure to decide whether the animal is returned, forfeited for adoption, or euthanized. Because the listed categories are broad, exotic mammal, reptile and hybrid-canid ownership in the unincorporated county is effectively prohibited outside a licensed exhibitor or zoo context, regardless of whether the animal is otherwise legal to own under state wildlife law.