Moore, OK Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 4-109 defines a 'wild or exotic animal' broadly as any animal not usually domestic that can normally be found in the wild, with or without mean or vicious propensities, and it lists lions, tigers, leopards, panthers, bears, wolves, alligators, crocodiles, apes, foxes, elephants, rhinoceroses, poisonous or large snakes such as boas and pythons, lynxes, raccoons, skunks and monkeys as examples. The prohibition itself is absolute in scope: it is unlawful to keep or harbor any wild or exotic animal in the city limits as a pet, for display, or for exhibition, whether the keeper charges a fee or not, except as the section itself provides.

The only carve-outs are zoological parks or zoos, performing animal exhibitions, circuses, and educational or medical institutions operating under whatever regulations the city council adopts for them, meaning a private resident has no lawful path to keep a listed species even briefly. The section was adopted by Ordinance 944(20) on June 15, 2020, as part of the same rewrite that overhauled Chapter 4-1's animal regulations, and it sits alongside Section 4-115's separate ban on feeding wild animals and waterfowl, which defines 'wild animal' to include coyotes, deer, feral cats, foxes, raccoons and similar species and prohibits feeding them anywhere in the city, public or private.