Surprise, AZ Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Sec. 030 with no exceptions or permit pathway listed in the text. This sits in chapter 10, article III, the division covering livestock, fowl and other regulated animals, immediately after Sec. 10-111, which separately bans keeping any swine within city limits at all, again without exception. Both bans contrast with the code's general livestock rule at Sec. 10-113, which allows livestock, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, mules and asses under the code's definition, provided at least one-half acre of lot area is set aside per animal; swine and poisonous reptiles/alligators/crocodiles get no such accommodation regardless of lot size.

Because the reptile ban is written as a blanket keeping prohibition rather than a licensing or containment standard, any possession of a venomous snake, alligator or crocodile within Surprise city limits is itself the violation, not merely improper enclosure or escape. The rodent definition in the same article (rabbits, chinchillas and similar mammals) and the fowl/livestock provisions that follow show the code addresses common backyard and hobby animals separately and more permissively, underscoring that the reptile, alligator and crocodile ban targets categorically dangerous exotic species rather than domestic pets.