West Jordan, UT Animal Ordinances: Exotic Pets (2026)

Section 6-3D-12, titled Sale And Ownership Of Wild Animals and traced to the 2001 Code section 14-4-112, makes it unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, barter, give away, keep, or purchase a wild animal, defined in section 6-3A-1 as any animal of a species that in its natural life is wild. The ban reaches ownership as well as sale, so a private resident cannot lawfully keep a wild animal as a pet anywhere in the city. Subsection A carves out a narrow institutional exception: the city's animal shelter, a zoological park, a veterinary hospital, a humane society shelter, a public laboratory, a circus, a sideshow, an amusement show, or a facility operated for education or scientific purposes may keep a wild animal only if it provides protective devices adequate to prevent the animal from escaping or injuring the public.

Subsection B layers on a second, independent prohibition: it is unlawful to keep any animal of a species prohibited or protected under title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or under any state regulation or law, which pulls federal and state endangered and protected species lists directly into city law. Enforcement runs through the chapter's general penalty at section 6-3G-1: a violation may be prosecuted administratively under Title 16 of the City Code or charged as a Class B misdemeanor, and each day a prohibited animal remains in someone's possession counts as a separate offense.