Rapid City, SD Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

080 states flatly that no wild animal may be kept within the city except under conditions the city itself fixes, and it carves out only one category of lawful keeper: circuses, zoos and educational institutions exhibiting animals under city-established regulations. There is no private-pet exception. 010(JJ): a wild animal is any animal other than livestock, a domestic dog or a domestic cat that is carnivorous in the wild or is otherwise capable of inflicting serious physical harm or death, and the code lists feral cats, venomous snakes, raccoons, skunks, foxes, deer, monkeys, crocodiles, alligators, bears, coyotes, wolverines, badgers, lions, tigers, ostriches, emus, cassowaries and rheas as examples.

That list reaches beyond the classic big-cat exotic-pet category into wildlife many residents might not think of as exotic, such as raccoons, foxes and even feral cats kept as pets. 010 (a fine of $1 to $500, up to 30 days in jail, or both) applies unless another section supplies a specific one. The Designated Animal Control Authority, operating in Rapid City through its contract with the Humane Society of the Black Hills, administers both the exhibition conditions and enforcement against unlawfully kept wild animals.