You’ve heard about “Snakes on a Plane.” But what about at the beach? If you want to bring your pet rattlesnake or a python to Orange Beach, forget it.

The same applies for monkeys, alligators, any kind of wild cats, or any other animal requiring a greater standard of care that is customary for a household pet sold at a store.

The Orange Beach City Council, earlier this month, adopted an outright ban on exotic animals within the city limits. The change is an amendment to a 2011 ordinance that allowed the city council to consider exotic animal requests if they were submitted through written permission at City Hall.

“We get people who want to bring really weird stuff down here, whether it’s a monkey, a (wild) cat, or sometimes a big snake,” Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon told AL.com this week. “That’s the last thing we need is a monkey creating a problem. But we have requests all the time.”

Kennon said the requests typically come from people who want to visit Orange Beach from other parts of the country. He said he doesn’t suspect any of the city’s 8,400 or so residents own an exotic pet that might be prohibited from the city’s ordinance.

“It’s people coming down here for vacations,” he said. “You can imagine what it would be like to see someone walking with an 8-foot python on the beach. Or a pig. It’s a bit of everything.”

City ordinances

Under the city’s definition, an exotic animal not allowed within the city limits includes a monkey, alligator, crocodile, caiman, raccoon, skunk, fox, bear, sea mammal, poisonous snake, any non-domestic cat, any non-domestic canine species, or any animal that requires a “standard of care and control greater than” what is required for the customary household pet “sold by a commercial pet shop or domestic farm animals.”

The ordinance did not spark any conversation by Orange Beach elected officials and Kennon said there was no one incident that sparked it.

Kay Maghan, spokesperson with Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism said she was unaware of anyone wanting to bring any animal other than their pet dogs and cats to the Alabama beaches.

Joel Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores, also said he was unaware of any issues.

In neighboring Gulf Shores, the city has had an ordinance on the books since 1998, which prohibits anyone from owning and raising a “captive wild animal.” The Gulf Shores definition includes any lion, tiger, wolf, bear, elephant, monkey, ape, alligator, poisonous snake, or non-poisonous snake not indigenous to the U.S.

Gulf Shores Police Chief Ed Delmore said that he is unaware of his officers encountering issues involving exotic animals.

Marianne Gauldin, conservation outreach coordinator with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said it’s not uncommon for a city like Orange Beach to address issues that are occurring in their cities and add restrictions that go and above Alabama state law.

Some cities will address exotic animal bans when residents show up with complaints.

In Attalla, an Etowah County city of around 6,000 residents, elected officials decided last year to enforce its exotic animal ordinance after receiving complaints about a resident who was reportedly interested in having his own exotic zoo in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Mobile city officials, in 2015, voted to outright ban roosters from the city limits amid complaints about noisy birds within the Oakleigh Garden District.

State restrictions

Alabama, though, remains one of the few states that has few restrictions on exotic animals – opting to follow federal restrictions or rely on local ordinances.

It is one of only six states in the U.S. that does not ban or regulate keeping big cats – tigers, lions, cheetahs, cougars, etc. Big cat ownership, however, is largely prohibited in the U.S. following a federal law that was enacted in 2022. Anyone who owned a big cat before the federal law took effect needed to register with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Twenty-one states ban all dangerous exotic pets. Alabama is not included.

Gauldin said in Alabama, dangerous pet ownership depends on whether the species is native or indigenous to Alabama. The state has no restriction against owning timber and eastern diamondback rattlesnakes — both indigenous to Alabama — though she encourages exotic pet owners to contact ACDNR and ask about the legality of doing so.

The state did approve sweeping regulations in 2020, prohibiting anyone or business from selling, possessing, or importing additional non-native species into the state. The move was opposed by exotic animal dealers and pet owners, who are required to get permits for the animals they keep.

Gauldin said the 2020 regulations increased the number of prohibited species within the state to include the 785 species deemed “injurious” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or which can cause damage to native habitats. Two of those species include the Burmese python and the Southern American lizard called a tegu.

Burmese pythons have settled into the Florida Everglades and are wiping out native animals. In Georgia, the state’s Department of Natural Resources is urging people to report sightings of tegus – alive or dead – as officials scramble to make sure the lizard doesn’t expand its population in the state.

“These species have caused problems in other states by establishing populations,” said Gauldin. “In addition to eating native wildlife, they use resources that belong to (native species). The tegu is eating the eggs of brown nesting birds and are preventing them to be a food source of our native wildlife.”

Gauldin said the state will get “one or two reports” monthly about exotic snakes or lizards found in the wild. She said they may be pets that have outgrown their confined habitats or might have escaped their owners.

“Some of these releases are purposeful and some may be unintentional,” she said.

Gauldin said that captured species are sometimes placed into educational facilities depending on the demand or availability. Others are euthanized, depending on their condition.