Pembroke Pines, FL Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 91.04, added by Ordinance 1941 in 2020, defines WILD or EXOTIC ANIMAL in division (A) by scientific classification, listing Artiodactyla (including hippopotamuses, giraffes, camels, and llamas, but excepting cattle, swine, sheep, and goats), Crocodilia (alligators and crocodiles), Elephantidae, Felidae (including tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, and cougars, or any hybrid thereof, but excluding domestic cats), Marsupialia, non-human primates, Perissodactyla, Pinnipedia, and Ursidae (bears). The section does not prohibit owning or keeping any animal in these classes; it targets how the animal is treated.

Division (B) is the operative rule: it shall be unlawful for any person to use a bullhook, ankus, whip, electrical prod or other implement or tool that causes unjustifiable pain or suffering to a wild or exotic animal within the municipal limits of the city. The section defines USE broadly to include brandishing, exhibiting, or displaying such an implement, or one designed to look like one, even without physical contact, for the purpose of training or controlling the behavior of the animal.

Division (C) puts enforcement in the hands of any city law or code enforcement officer, and division (D) lets an officer with probable cause issue a citation for the civil infraction directly, with the case prosecuted as a city ordinance citation and punished under the general penalty in § 10.99. The section works alongside the animal-display permitting rule in § 91.05, which separately requires anyone exhibiting a live animal to the public in the city to hold federal and state licenses plus a city permit and business tax receipt, but § 91.04's device ban applies to any wild or exotic animal in the city, not only ones on public display.