Porterville, CA Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

City Code section 5-3.1.D flatly states that, except as permitted under the residential chicken-keeping and AC/RR agricultural-animal exceptions in subsections B and C, it is unlawful for any person to keep, maintain, or permit to be maintained bees, swine, llamas, roosters, chickens, pigeons, turkeys, pea fowl, waterfowl, ostriches, other ratitae, or livestock on any premises within the city. The same subsection then adds a separate, broader prohibition: predatory, wild, or endangered animals are not allowed within the city at all, with no zone-based exception offered for that clause.

This sits inside the chapter's general animal-keeping framework: subsection A caps household pets at seven combined animals with no more than three each of cats, dogs, or chickens, while subsection C carves out AC and RR zoned half-acre-plus lots for permitted livestock species at density limits. A related nuisance-and-seizure power in section 5-3.10.D.1 lets the Police Department follow seizure and impoundment procedures specifically where the nuisance is caused by a wild or exotic animal, an at-large animal, or a dangerous animal, giving the department a direct enforcement tool once an exotic animal is found on a property.

The animal-keeping ban is separate from, and does not affect, the cruelty and welfare protections in section 5-3.6, which independently makes it unlawful to harm any animal as defined by Penal Code section 597.