6 Weird Pets That Are Surprisingly Legal To Own In New Jersey

I feel like when you were a little kid everyone dreams of owning a pet elephant, tiger, giraffe, or some other strange animal as a pet one day. Typically, most people only own animals you can buy at a pet store, but apparently, that’s not the case for all of New Jersey.

This was definitely one of those times where I went down a google wormhole and found myself obtaining some pretty useless information, but here we are! In New Jersey, it’s legal to own all different types of animals that you wouldn’t expect. I have the strangest pet out of everyone I know, which is my boyfriend and I’s a bearded dragon named Ozzy, but apparently, there are some people in the garden state who have me beat!

Of course, there are plenty of people in the area who live on farms and own sheep, goats, horses, pigs, and all kinds of farm animals, which compared to these different legal pets, is normal!

6 Weird Pets That Are Legal To Own In New Jersey

Ostriches

Apparently, you don’t have to go to the Philly Zoo to see one of these guys, with the right permit, you can keep them in your home!

Wallabies

If you’ve never heard of one of these before, a Wallaby is basically a distant cousin of a kangaroo.

Raccoons

The rules with owning raccoons are that they can’t come from the wild and have to be obtained from a licensed breeder, according to pethelpful.com.

Opossums

I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard of anyone wanting a possum as a pet, but if that’s your dream, start working on your “Captive Game Permit” now!

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Skunks

Don’t get me wrong, they’re very cute, but what if they spray in your house? You’ll be smothering everything in tomato juice and dawn dish soap.

Otters

Ok, otters are probably my favorite animals on the planet. They’re like water dogs. To own one, you have to prove to the state that you have a suitable enclosure for them which I’m sure is extremely hard.