Portsmouth, VA Animal Ordinances: Wildlife Rescue Permits (2026)

Section 4-33 of the City Code requires anyone keeping a hybrid-canine, hybrid-feline, monkey, ratite, porcine, large reptile, or crocodilian within Portsmouth to first pass an animal control inspection and obtain a permit from the city treasurer's office, supported by a $50,000 surety bond or liability policy, a veterinarian's health certificate, and disclosure of the animal's acquisition source and any state or federal permit already held. That permit must be renewed by January 31 each year and is not transferable. Subsection (m), however, carves out a specific exception: wildlife rehabilitators are excluded from the section for the purpose of acting under a state and federal license to treat injured, sick, or orphaned wild animals.

In practice, a person who already holds a valid state or federal wildlife rehabilitation permit, issued by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources or a federal agency for migratory or endangered species, does not need to separately apply for Portsmouth's exotic-animal permit, post the $50,000 bond, or submit to the treasurer's office inspection before temporarily housing an injured owl, fox kit, or other wild animal for treatment and release. The exemption is scoped to rehabilitation activity itself; it does not extend to keeping a wild or exotic animal permanently as a pet once treatment concludes, nor does it override the outright prohibition on the dangerous wild animals listed separately in § 4-11, since a rehabilitator handling one of those species still operates strictly under, and only to the extent authorized by, their state or federal license.