Weird Wisconsin Laws: You Can Legally Own This Wild Animal As A Pet

Every now and then I come across a weird law that makes me scratch my head. You can actually own a certain animal legally if you live in Wisconsin.

Commonly owned animals in the Dairy state are typically cats and dogs. According to Pawlicy, about 59% of homeowners in the state own a pet. Diving further into the data, you see that about 33% own dogs, and about 32% own cats. I could not find the percentage of homeowners that have this specific pet, but I have heard stories.

Which animal am I talking about exactly?

A raccoon

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Apparently, it's 100% legal to own raccoons as pets in the following states:

Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

That is all coming from the website, World Population Review. Looking more into it, there are special licensing and other stuff that will need to go into per state. After all, every state is different.

According to the Wisconsin DNR, they offer several different licenses: a captive wild animal farm license, a nonprofit educational exhibit license, and the nonresident temporary exhibiting license.

Raccoons are considered to be exotic pets, so you'll need a captive wild animal farm license. Fun fact, The DNR requires a license for anything designated as a “harmful wild animal.” If you're wondering what is a harmful wild animal, it includes:

• Bears
• Cougars
• Mute swans
• Wolf-dog hybrids

So if you happen to live in Wisconsin and you or your kid keep watching 'Guardians of the Galaxy', you could technically own a "trash panda" as a pet. You just have to go through the proper steps.