Where is the chinchilla legal?

Chinchilla lanigera. Restricted in 3 of the 52 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Interactive map

Alabama: no restriction found for chinchillaAlaska: no restriction found for chinchillaArizona: no restriction found for chinchillaArkansas: no restriction found for chinchillaCalifornia: no restriction found for chinchillaColorado: no restriction found for chinchillaConnecticut: no restriction found for chinchillaDelaware: no restriction found for chinchillaFlorida: no restriction found for chinchillaGeorgia: no restriction found for chinchillaHawaii: conditions apply for chinchillaIdaho: no restriction found for chinchillaIllinois: no restriction found for chinchillaIndiana: no restriction found for chinchillaIowa: no restriction found for chinchillaKansas: no restriction found for chinchillaKentucky: no restriction found for chinchillaLouisiana: no restriction found for chinchillaMaine: no restriction found for chinchillaMaryland: no restriction found for chinchillaMassachusetts: conditions apply for chinchillaMichigan: no restriction found for chinchillaMinnesota: no restriction found for chinchillaMississippi: no restriction found for chinchillaMissouri: no restriction found for chinchillaMontana: no restriction found for chinchillaNebraska: no restriction found for chinchillaNevada: no restriction found for chinchillaNew Hampshire: no restriction found for chinchillaNew Jersey: permit required for chinchillaNew Mexico: no restriction found for chinchillaNew York: no restriction found for chinchillaNorth Carolina: no restriction found for chinchillaNorth Dakota: no restriction found for chinchillaOhio: no restriction found for chinchillaOklahoma: no restriction found for chinchillaOregon: no restriction found for chinchillaPennsylvania: no restriction found for chinchillaRhode Island: no restriction found for chinchillaSouth Carolina: no restriction found for chinchillaSouth Dakota: no restriction found for chinchillaTennessee: no restriction found for chinchillaTexas: no restriction found for chinchillaUtah: no restriction found for chinchillaVermont: no restriction found for chinchillaVirginia: no restriction found for chinchillaWashington: no restriction found for chinchillaWest Virginia: no restriction found for chinchillaWisconsin: no restriction found for chinchillaWyoming: no restriction found for chinchillaDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for chinchilla

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked.

What the colours mean

  • BannedNo legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit required (1)Legal, but you need a permit or license before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions apply (2)Legal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • UnclearThe rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction found (49)This jurisdiction was read for this animal and nothing in it restricts one.
  • Not checked yetWe have not read this jurisdiction for this animal. It is not a clean bill of health, it is a gap.

Choose an animal (A to Z, 52 of them)

Ackie monitorAfrican grey parrotArgentine black and white teguAxolotlBall pythonBearded dragonBengal catBlue-tongue skinkBoa constrictorBox turtleBurmese pythonCalifornia kingsnakeCapybaraChinchillaCockatooCorn snakeCrested geckoDeguEmperor scorpionFennec foxFerretFlying squirrelGarter snakeGerbilGiant African millipedeGreen anoleGreen iguanaGuinea pigHamsterHedgehogHognose snakeJackson's chameleonLeopard geckoMadagascar hissing cockroachMilk snakeNile monitorPrairie dogQuaker parakeetRabbitRed-eared sliderRed-footed tortoiseRosy boaRussian tortoiseSavannah monitorServalSnapping turtleSugar gliderSulcata tortoiseTarantulaTiger salamanderTokay geckoVeiled chameleon

Every restriction on the chinchilla

3 of the 52 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find. Open a row for the wording of the rule and the citation behind it.

New Jersey

Permit requiredN.J.A.C. 7:25-4.5
A permit shall be required for any other exotic mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, or nongame species not specifically exempted by N.J.A.C. 7:25-4.4.

New Jersey is a closed-list state in the strict sense. 7:25-4.2(a) bars possession of any exotic or nongame species without a permit, 4.4 then names the handful that may be kept without one, and 4.5 sweeps everything else back in. The chinchilla appears on none of the Division's three lists, so it is not exempt under 4.4, not one of the families singled out in 4.3, and not potentially dangerous under 4.8. That leaves 4.5, and the permit it points to is the individual hobby permit at 4.6(a)1, which 4.7 conditions on diet, caging that prevents escape, lawful acquisition, veterinary care and freedom from disease. The Division's own handout tells readers to phone the permits office for anything the lists do not name, which is a fair signal that the catch-all is where these end up rather than an oversight. It sits awkwardly next to the exempt list, which names the hamster, the gerbil, the guinea pig and laboratory mice and rats, all farmed pet rodents of the same kind. The chinchilla was simply not added, and 4.4 is closed, so the omission decides it.

How this rule works: NJDEP's own courtesy copy of the whole of N.J.A.C. 7:25. Subchapter 4 starts at 7:25-4.1 and carries the definitions, the permit requirement at 4.2, the three species lists at 4.3, 4.4 and 4.8, the pet bar at 4.9(a)3 and 4.15(b), and the state endangered list at 4.13. The three list PDFs the Division hands out are extracts of this.

N.J.A.C. 7:25 Subchapter 4, Endangered, Nongame and Exotic Wildlife →

Hawaii

Conditions apply§ 4-71-6.5, List of Conditionally Approved Animals
Chinchilla lanigera

On the conditionally approved list rather than a restricted one, so import and possession are allowed by permit subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture attaches. One of the few mammals with a legitimate route into Hawaii.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Hawaii Administrative Rules, List of Conditionally Approved Animals (Hawaii Department of Agriculture official PDF) →

Massachusetts

Conditions apply321 CMR 9.01(12)(a)(2)
List of Mammals. (a) The following mammals may be kept without a permit: 1. Four-toed (African pygmy) hedgehog (Erinaceus albiventris) (= Atelerix pruneri) 2. Chinchilla (Chinchilla spp.) derived from captive stock. 3. Deer Mouse and White-footed Mouse 4. Degu (Octodon degus) 5. Egyptian Spiny Mouse 6. House Mouse 7. Jerboas 8. Norway Rat 9. Paca 10. Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans) 11. Striped hamster ... 12. Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) 13. American Bison

The entry reads "Chinchilla (Chinchilla spp.) derived from captive stock", and the qualifier is doing real work. Wild chinchillas are IUCN-listed as endangered, which under 9.01(3)(b) means the species cannot be exempted at all, and the Division answered that by exempting the captive-bred form specifically. A keeper is asked for provenance rather than paperwork: there is no permit and no registry, but the animal has to be captive stock. This is also the clearest evidence on the face of the rule of how the Division reads the categorical bar, since it exempted a species whose wild population is listed by writing the captive qualifier into the entry.

How this rule works: Massachusetts runs a closed white list and says so in terms: a species not on it, or listed as requiring a permit, is not exempt from M.G.L. c. 131, § 23. Two structural points decide most of this state. First, 9.01(2) defines "species" as a "distinct non-domestic VERTEBRATE animal population", and § 23 itself reaches only fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, so terrestrial invertebrates are outside the scheme entirely. Second, 9.01(3) is a categorical override that most readings of this rule miss: no species may be exempted if it is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, appears in the IUCN Red Book(s), or is on the Massachusetts endangered, threatened and special concern list at 321 CMR 10.90. Nearly every group listing in 9.01 repeats the cross-reference, so it operates as a live carve-out rather than as drafting furniture, and it is what pulls the Burmese python out of Boidae, the crested gecko out of Gekkonidae and the box turtle out of the turtle allowance.

321 CMR 9.00, Exotic Wildlife: 9.01 Exemption List and 9.02 List of Domestic Animals →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the chinchilla legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the chinchilla profile.

Cite this page

Every entry here is quoted from the statute or regulation it comes from, with the date it was last read against the published text.

How to read this

Two of the shades mean very different things and are worth telling apart. A flat grey state was read for this animal and nothing in it restricts one. A dotted state has not been read for this animal at all. Coverage runs from two jurisdictions to fifty-one depending on the species, so on a less-researched animal most of the map is a gap in our work rather than a finding, and it should not be taken as permission.

Even a flat grey is not a guarantee. It means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.