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S 252 NY
Passed Legislature

Relates to wild or exotic animals

NY · session 2025-2026 · Senate · bill

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Introduced Jan 8, 2025

Latest action (May 13, 2026) REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

Summary

Provides that "wild animal" means indigenous, non-domesticated animals native to the country in which they live and "exotic animal" means a wild animal with an origin of a different continent; adds certain wild or exotic animals to the list of non-companion animals; provides certain owners of wild or exotic animals with a license process.

Sponsor (1)

7 coauthors / cosponsors

Action history (16)

  1. Jan 8, 2025 REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION · upper
  2. Feb 25, 2025 1ST REPORT CAL.393 · upper
  3. Feb 26, 2025 2ND REPORT CAL. · upper
  4. Mar 3, 2025 ADVANCED TO THIRD READING · upper
  5. Apr 8, 2025 PASSED SENATE · upper
  6. Apr 8, 2025 DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY · upper
  7. Apr 8, 2025 REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION · lower
  8. Jan 7, 2026 DIED IN ASSEMBLY · lower
  9. Jan 7, 2026 RETURNED TO SENATE · lower
  10. Jan 7, 2026 REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION · upper
  11. Jan 20, 2026 1ST REPORT CAL.51 · upper
  12. Jan 21, 2026 2ND REPORT CAL. · upper
  13. Jan 27, 2026 ADVANCED TO THIRD READING · upper
  14. May 13, 2026 PASSED SENATE · upper
  15. May 13, 2026 DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY · upper
  16. May 13, 2026 REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION · lower

Text versions (2)

The published texts of this bill as it moves through the legislature. Each links to the official document on the state legislature site. Data from OpenStates.

  • S252 · HTML
  • S252 · PDF

Full text

Full text imported from assembly.state.ny.us

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New York State Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie

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Bill No.: Summary Actions Committee&nbspVotes Floor&nbspVotes Memo Text LFIN Chamber&nbspVideo/Transcript S00252 Summary: BILL NO S00252 &nbsp SAME AS SAME AS A01804

&nbsp SPONSOR MARTINEZ &nbsp COSPNSR ADDABBO, COMRIE, GOUNARDES, MAY, MURRAY, SEPULVEDA, WEBB &nbsp MLTSPNSR &nbsp Amd §§11-0103 & 11-0512, En Con L &nbsp Provides that "wild animal" means indigenous, non-domesticated animals native to the country in which they live and "exotic animal" means a wild animal with an origin of a different continent; adds certain wild or exotic animals to the list of non-companion animals; provides certain owners of wild or exotic animals with a license process.

Go to top S00252 Text:

STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________

252

2025-2026 Regular Sessions

IN SENATE

(Prefiled)

January 8, 2025 ___________

Introduced by Sens. MARTINEZ, COMRIE, GOUNARDES, MAY, SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Environmental Conservation

AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to wild or exotic animals

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows:

1 Section 1. Paragraph e of subdivision 6 of section 11-0103 of the 2 environmental conservation law, as amended by chapter 10 of the laws of 3 2005, is amended to read as follows: 4 e. [ "Wild animal" shall not include "companion animal" as defined in 5 section three hundred fifty of the agriculture and markets law. Wild 6 animal includes, ] "Wild animal" means indigenous, non-domesticated 7 animals native to the country in which they live. "Exotic animal" means 8 a wild animal with an origin of a different continent. The terms wild 9 animal and exotic animal shall not include "companion animal" as defined 10 in section three hundred fifty of the agriculture and markets law. Wild 11 animals and exotic animals include and [ is ] are limited to, any or all 12 of the following orders [ and ] , families , and genera : 13 (1) Nonhuman primates and prosimians, 14 (2) Felidae and all hybrids thereof, with the exception of the species 15 Felis catus (domesticated and feral cats, which shall mean domesticated 16 cats that were formerly owned and that have been abandoned and that are 17 no longer socialized, as well as offspring of such cats) and hybrids of 18 Felis catus that are registered by the American Cat Fanciers Association 19 or the International Cat Association provided that such cats be without 20 any wild felid parentage for a minimum of five generations, 21 (3) Canidae (with the exception of domesticated dogs and captive bred 22 fennec foxes (vulpes zerda)), 23 (4) Ursidae,

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD00904-01-5

S. 252 2

1 (5) All reptiles that are venomous by nature, pursuant to department 2 regulation, and the following species and orders: Burmese Python (Python 3 m. bivittatus), Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus), African Rock 4 Python (Python sabae), Green Anaconda (Eunectes maurinus), Yellow 5 Anaconda (Eunectes notaeus), Australian Amethystine Python (Morelia 6 amethistina and Morelia kinghorni), Indian Python (Python molurus), 7 Asiatic (water) Monitor (Varanus salvator), Nile Monitor (Varanus nilo- 8 citus), White Throat Monitor (Varanus albigularis), Black Throat Monitor 9 (Varanus albigularis ionides) and Crocodile Monitor (Varanus salvadori), 10 Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodensis) and any hybrid thereof, 11 (6) Crocodylia , 12 (7) Macropodidae including but not limited to kangaroos, wallabies, 13 tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons and quokkas, 14 (8) Cetacea (including whales and dolphins), 15 (9) Elephantidae (elephants), 16 (10) Hyaenidae (hyenas), 17 (11) Perissodactyla (including rhinoceroses, tapirs and zebras), 18 (12) Pinnipedia (including seals, sea lions and walruses), 19 (13) Xenarthra (including sloths, anteaters and armadillos), 20 (14) Viverridae (including bearcats), 21 (15) Cynomys, and 22 (16) Capybaras . 23 § 2. Section 11-0512 of the environmental conservation law is amended 24 by adding a new subdivision 3-a to read as follows: 25 3-a. Any person who possesses or harbors an exotic animal pursuant to 26 paragraph e of subdivision six of section 11-0103 of this article for 27 use as a pet at the time that this subdivision takes effect may retain 28 possession of such animal for the remainder of its life, provided that 29 such person: 30 a. Has not been convicted of any offense relating to cruelty to 31 animals or under a judicial order prohibiting possession of animals; and 32 b. Applies to the department within six months of the effective date 33 of this section, and obtains from the department, a license pursuant to 34 subdivision four of this section. 35 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

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