I know a lot of states require permites for big or venomous herps, and some states have virtually no herp laws at all.

My state of PA, for example, has almost no reptile laws on the books. The only herp-related state laws in PA have to do with protecting herps that are native to PA. There are state laws for the handful of snakes, lizards, and turtles native to PA, but nothing regulating exotic herps. So as long as it doesn't live in PA, it's 100% legal to buy/sell/keep any reptile that your heart desires in the state of Pennsylvania. It doesn't matter if it's venomous or otherwise big and dangerous, PA has no laws against keeping it (releasing it in the wild is illegal of course).

The only exceptions are city laws. A lot of city laws forbid certain types of pets and exotic animals, but the PA state laws are silent on the matter. So if your city doesn't have specific laws against you having a cobra farm in your basement, PA's an easy place to do it (not always a good thing).

So what are the reptile laws like in YOUR HOME STATE?

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Jesse Rothacker
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
www.forgottenfriend.org
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Well I'm officially still a resident of ND, even though I've lived in TX since July. I don't think ND has many laws regarding herps. There's not a ton of people there, and being dominated by older people and ranchers, herps aren't very popular anyway. Plus out cold climate limits them a bit.

Here in TX I think you can have just about anything though, but I wouldn't know.

In a few weeks I'm moving to California. There the laws are some of the strictest anywhere. No venomous, crocodilians, large snakes, gila monsters, large monitors, and even some semingly harmless ones like african clawed frogs, etc. The clawed frogs, salamanders, etc are illegal not because of public threat, but due to the threat to native endangered species should the non-natives escape or be released. I even have to leave some of my pets behind when I move.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

I came across this somewhere else today...

Exhibiting Exotics in Public

Gives an over view for each state... this of course doesn't pertain to basic ownership laws.

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

Oklahoma is pretty liberal with regard to Herp laws. There really isn't much on a state level. However the local ordinances will vary from town to town. Just recently they passed one prohibiting the keeping of any crocodilian on non-commercial property.

Prior to that you could keep an alligator in the backyard!

Imagine being a meter reader and jumping the wrong fence!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

you guys are pretty lucky. i live in the bronx and newyork has a strict policy on exotics since that guy got bit by his tiger on the upper east side. everything from monitors to iggys are illegal. it turns out that everything I own except for my Bearded Dragons are illegal. i was also told that if you already owned an exotic before the bill was passed you can get a permit for them, the permit will cost you 80 dollars a herp and you must promise not to breed them. i think that its just a ploy to find out who in the city has exotics but as of now I cant let anything I own be seen by anybody. the A.S.P.C.A police are out in full force. they confiscated one of my friends iggys right from the vets office.

The state of Texas does not regulate exotic reptiles at all. Most cities, though, do ban venomous and crocodilians. There are numerous native reptiles that are protected by state law, like the Texas tortoise, the Texas indigo snake, American alligators, horned lizards, and a few other things. There is a list of 'non-game' species, for which you need a state hunting permit to possess over 25 of, but under that amount is not regulated, and many species aren't regulated at all.

Texas state cruelty to animals law also includes reptiles, even though you'd be ****** before you could find a sheriff to actually enforce cruelty in a reptile case. The state cruelty officer informed me that his solution to cruelty to reptiles was a 12 gauge.

D