Rocklin, CA Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Rocklin Municipal Code § 6.40.010 states the rule in a single sentence: it is unlawful for any person to keep any wild animal. That is a blanket residential and commercial ban, not a permit system, and it applies citywide regardless of zoning district. Section 6.40.020 carves out seven narrow exceptions, none of which cover a private owner keeping an exotic animal as a pet: state-approved diagnostic or research use, teaching at a recognized educational institution, veterinarians boarding or treating a wild animal, state-licensed game farms or breeding establishments, nonprofit zoological gardens open to the public, commercial establishments that sell animals and keep wild animals solely at their place of business, and circus or entertainment use.

Anyone outside those categories who keeps a wild animal, from a big cat to a venomous reptile, is in violation the moment the animal is kept within city limits. The chapter's exemption list is also cross-referenced by § 6.44.090, which exempts the same categories of persons from the chapter's household-pet and livestock restrictions. Because the ban carries no separate penalty clause of its own, enforcement runs through the citywide mechanisms in Title 1: administrative citation under Chapter 1.14 or prosecution as a misdemeanor under Chapter 1.18, with animal control officers empowered to investigate and impound under the animal control chapters that precede 6.40.