Provo, UT Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

080 of the Provo City Code flatly bars private ownership of wild animals: it is unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, barter, give away, harbor, rent, or purchase any wild animal. The only exceptions run to institutions, not individuals: an animal shelter, zoological park, veterinary hospital, humane society shelter, public laboratory, circus, or facility for education or scientific purposes may keep a wild animal, and only if it provides protective devices adequate to prevent the animal from escaping or injuring the public.

A narrow carve-out lets a university keep feral cats for a bona fide educational or scientific research project, provided the cats are spayed or neutered before release at the university's expense. Wild animals may also be used in motion picture filming where otherwise lawful and reasonable public-safety precautions are taken, and persons raising mustelids commercially for pelts are exempted. The ordinance grandfathers one narrow class: a wild animal already registered with Provo City before November 1, 1987 may still be kept, subject to a City registration fee and receipt, but that clause does not authorize keeping a vicious animal.

Because the general prohibition sweeps in any non-domesticated species that does not fit a listed exception, a resident who wants to keep a large reptile, primate, or big cat has no permit path under this section: the animal simply cannot be kept in the city outside an exempted institution. Enforcement runs through Provo's animal control officers under Title 8 generally, and a wild animal found in violation is subject to seizure in the same manner as other unlawfully possessed animals under the chapter.