St. Petersburg, FL Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

City Code § 4-2(a) flatly prohibits any person from keeping, maintaining, or having in their possession or control within the City any poisonous reptile, any other dangerous or carnivorous wild animal or reptile, any vicious or dangerous domesticated animal, or any other animal or reptile of wild, vicious or dangerous propensities. This sits in Chapter 4, Article I of the Code, the general animal-control article, alongside the definition of 'at large' in § 4-1 and the disposal-of-dead-animal duty in § 4-3. Section 4-2(b) layers a second, independent requirement on top of the outright ban: even for an animal category for which Florida requires a State permit, for example certain exotic or Class I/II/III wildlife under the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's captive wildlife rules, it remains unlawful to keep that animal in St.

Petersburg unless the keeper holds a valid, current State permit and is in full compliance with every condition of it. , as a related but separate state-law regime for dog-specific dangerousness determinations. The animal chapter is short, Chapter 4 runs from § 4-1 to the low 4-30s before the fowl and livestock article begins, so § 4-2 functions as St. Petersburg's sole general-purpose exotic and dangerous animal prohibition, with no municipal permitting or exception process of its own for wild or vicious species.