Palm Coast, FL Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 8-44(c) of the Palm Coast animal control ordinance folds the city's rules on wild and exotic pets directly into state law. ch. 379 and all regulations the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has promulgated; animals that agencies classify as needing a specific pen or enclosure must be caged to those standards and carry proper state licensing or permits. The ordinance's definitions section, Sec. 8-28, separately defines 'dangerous animals' to include, by way of illustration, bears, lions, leopards, cheetahs, venomous and constricting reptiles, piranha, sharks, poisonous insects and spiders, alligators, crocodiles, tigers, eagles, hawks, simians, large primates and elephants, and treats any rabies-susceptible animal that cannot be vaccinated because no licensed vaccine exists as dangerous as well.

Owners of dangerous animals must confine them within a building, cage or other secure enclosure under Sec. 8-44(a), and may only remove one from that enclosure if it is securely leashed, tethered, chained, muzzled or otherwise restrained under subsection (b). Because Florida's own wildlife permitting system through the FWC is strict about Class I and Class II wildlife, this section effectively channels exotic-pet ownership questions to state licensing rather than setting a separate city permit process. 00 under Sec. 8-57(a)(5), contestable before the city's Hearing Officer, with a mandatory court appearance required for a third or subsequent citation.