McCracken County, KY Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

County Code § 50.01 defines EXOTIC ANIMAL as any animal not indigenous to the United States and not ordinarily tame, one that by nature lives apart from human beings. Section 50.07 turns that definition into three separate outright prohibitions: subsection (A) bans selling, owning, harboring or keeping as a pet any wild or exotic animal not indigenous to the United States; subsection (B) separately bans the same conduct for any wild animal native to the United States, such as raccoons, foxes or bobcats; and subsection (C) bans selling, owning, harboring or keeping any venomous reptile outright, with no indigenous-species carve-out. All three prohibitions share the same narrow exception: state and federal conservation officers, licensed nuisance wildlife officers, and licensed wildlife rehabilitators acting within their official duties. The chapter gives Animal Control enforcement authority alongside law enforcement officers, and, as with the rest of the chapter, applies only in unincorporated McCracken County; Paducah enforces its own separate city code.