Mount Pleasant, SC Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

26(A) makes it unlawful for any person to keep, maintain, or possess or control within the town any poisonous reptile, any other dangerous or carnivorous wild animal or reptile, or any vicious or dangerous domesticated animal or reptile of wild, vicious, or dangerous propensities. 26(B) then classifies 29 specific animals as banned outright, including all poisonous animals and rear-fanged snakes, apes (chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas, orangutans, siamangs), baboons, bears, bison, cheetahs, constrictor snakes six feet or longer, coyotes, crocodilians 30 inches or longer, deer species, elephants, gamecocks and other fighting birds, hippopotami, hyenas, jaguars, leopards, lions, lynxes, old world monkeys, ostriches, piranha, pumas, raccoons, rhinoceroses, sharks, snow leopards, swine, tigers, and wolves.

26(C) carves out a narrow exception for menageries, zoological gardens, circuses, and accredited educational nonprofits, but only if the facility conforms to the Town's zoning code, keeps animals in clean, sanitary, escape-proof quarters free of objectionable odors, and no person resides within 200 feet of the animal quarters. 25, separately bars anyone from knowingly handling a venomous reptile with bare hands or exposed skin, or permitting another person to do so. 01 clarifies the ban does not reach non-dangerous 'exotic' birds or animals lawfully sold at pet stores, unless a species is specifically named in Chapter 90.