Lynnwood, WA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Rescue Permits (2026)

040 states that no person shall own any wild animal unless that person has obtained a permit from the State Game Department and/or Federal Fish and Wildlife Service. The section then carves out a narrow local allowance: the animal control authority may permit a person to temporarily care for an infant or injured wild animal that is native to the area and homeless while that person acquires the necessary state and federal permits. 015(S) as an animal living in its natural state, native to the United States, and not normally domesticated, raised or bred by humans, distinguishing it from the separately defined and separately banned "exotic animal" category.

030, the exotic animals section, meaning the temporary-care allowance never authorizes possession of a species that independently qualifies as exotic. In practice, this means a Lynnwood resident who finds an injured native bird or mammal may hold it briefly while contacting the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife or a permitted federal wildlife rehabilitator, but ongoing possession without a state or federal permit remains unlawful.