Can You Own a Boa Constrictor in North Dakota? Laws, Permits, and City Rules Explained

Can you own a boa constrictor in North Dakota? The honest answer depends far less on state law than on which city limits you happen to live inside. North Dakota’s agriculture code treats most pet snakes as low-risk animals that need no state permit at all, yet cross into West Fargo or Minot and that same snake can trigger a municipal permit fee, a size restriction, or an outright ban.

This split between a permissive state framework and a patchwork of city ordinances is the single biggest source of confusion for North Dakota reptile keepers. Below, you will find how federal law, state statute, municipal codes, and enforcement penalties each apply to boa constrictor ownership, plus what documentation to keep on hand if you already own one.

Is It Legal to Own a Boa Constrictor in North Dakota

At the state level, owning a boa constrictor is generally legal in North Dakota. The boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is a nonvenomous, heavy-bodied snake native to Central and South America that has become one of the most commonly kept large snake species in the American pet trade, in part because it stays smaller and more manageable than giant pythons, typically reaching around 13 feet at the very largest end of the species.

North Dakota’s statewide rules classify most nonvenomous pet reptiles as low-concern animals that do not require a state license to possess. But state permissiveness does not automatically translate to city-level permissiveness. Fargo, West Fargo, and Minot each maintain their own animal ordinances, and those ordinances do not always agree with each other or with the state’s approach.

Pro Tip: Before bringing home a boa constrictor anywhere in North Dakota, call your city clerk’s office or animal control division directly. State legality and city legality are two separate questions, and only your local ordinance will tell you which one actually governs your address.

This layered system is common across exotic pet ownership in the state. Similar overlapping rules apply to hedgehog ownership in North Dakota, where state classification and city nuisance codes can point in different directions depending on where you live.

Federal Restrictions on Boa Constrictors

Federal law has a more specific and, for boa owners, more favorable history than many people assume. In 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing nine large constrictor species as “injurious wildlife” under the Lacey Act, a designation that would have banned their importation and interstate transport without a federal permit. The proposed rule covered the Indian (including Burmese) python, reticulated python, Northern African python, Southern African python, boa constrictor, yellow anaconda, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda, and Beni anaconda.

Wildlife officials did not finalize the rule for all nine species at once. The Burmese python, yellow anaconda, northern African python, and southern African python were listed as injurious species in 2012, which made it illegal to import or move those snakes across state lines without a federal permit. The boa constrictor was not part of that first group.

A second wave of listings followed in 2015, but the boa was left out again. The new regulation lists the reticulated python, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda as injurious under the Lacey Act, and removes the boa constrictor from consideration. Wildlife officials explained the reasoning directly: the boa constrictor is the only one of the nine species initially proposed that was withdrawn from consideration because the regulatory prohibitions of the Lacey Act are less effective when a species is widely held in captivity in high numbers, with significant domestic breeding likely to continue regardless.

In practical terms, this means boa constrictors can be bought, sold, and transported across state lines without the federal permitting hurdles that apply to Burmese pythons or green anacondas. That said, federal protection can still apply to specific boa subspecies through the Endangered Species Act or CITES if they are considered threatened in the wild, a status distinct from the general population’s endangered species protections that apply within North Dakota to native wildlife.

North Dakota’s Laws on Owning a Boa Constrictor

North Dakota regulates exotic and nontraditional pets primarily through the state’s Non-Traditional Livestock rules, overseen by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture’s Animal Health Division. These rules sort animals into three tiers, and the tier a species falls into determines whether state licensing applies.

Category 1 covers species considered low-risk, and ownership requires no state license. According to a breakdown of the state’s rules, Category 1 species include turkeys, geese and ducks morphologically distinguishable from wild birds, pigeons, mules, donkeys, chinchilla, ferrets, hedgehog, and degus, among others that do not require nontraditional livestock licensure. Common nonvenomous pet reptiles, including boa constrictors, generally fall within this low-regulation tier at the state level.

Category 3, by contrast, covers species the state considers inherently dangerous. Official state regulation summaries describe Category 3 as including wild suidae (hogs and pigs); large felids (cats) and hybrids; bears; wolves and wolf-hybrids; venomous reptiles; primates, and nondomestic sheep/goats and their hybrids. Notice that this tier is defined around venomous reptiles specifically, not nonvenomous constrictors like boas.

Important Note: Some local news coverage of North Dakota snake debates has described state law as broadly prohibiting “venomous snakes or constrictors,” while the state’s own Non-Traditional Livestock categories treat common nonvenomous constrictors as low-regulation animals. This gap likely reflects differences between state licensing rules and separate municipal bans, so always confirm your specific city’s ordinance rather than relying on either description alone.

This tiered structure is the same framework that governs many other exotic species in the state, and it echoes how North Dakota separates genuinely dangerous wildlife from lower-risk companion animals elsewhere in its code, including how it treats venomous animals in North Dakota versus nonvenomous ones like the state’s native coral snake population, which does not actually exist in the wild there.

Permits and Requirements for Boa Constrictor Ownership in North Dakota

Because boa constrictors fall into the state’s low-regulation category, most North Dakota residents do not need a state-issued permit simply to keep one as a pet. However, a few situations change that:

• Breeding or propagating boas: If you intend to breed boa constrictors, even without selling offspring, the state’s exotic animal framework notes that if you wish to keep and propagate certain animals, even with no intention of selling them, you will need to obtain a “noncommercial propagating license”.
• Selling or commercially dealing boas: Anyone buying and reselling snakes commercially should expect a separate dealer-level license requirement rather than the simple ownership tier.
• City-level permits: Many municipalities layer their own permit requirements on top of state rules, regardless of how the state classifies the species.

West Fargo is the clearest example of a city-level permit system. Under the permit structure the city adopted, the ordinance removes boa constrictors from the prohibited list and enables residents to keep up to three snakes, provided they obtain a permit, and the permit is good for up to three snakes and is renewable each year. The city’s current animal code confirms this permit-based approach remains active, stating that no person shall keep, feed, or maintain restricted non-venomous constricting snakes except as otherwise permitted by the applicable ordinances of the City of West Fargo.

If you already keep game birds, waterfowl, or other regulated species alongside your snake collection, it helps to understand how the state’s broader wildlife permitting works through the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s hunting and licensing framework, since several nontraditional livestock rules cross-reference the same department.

Local Ordinances That May Apply in North Dakota

City ordinances are where most boa constrictor restrictions in North Dakota actually live, and they vary dramatically from one city to the next. The three most documented examples are Fargo, West Fargo, and Minot.

City	Boa Constrictor Status	Notes
Fargo	Generally allowed	Broad “wild or exotic” ban excludes non-poisonous snakes from the prohibition
West Fargo	Allowed with permit	Permit covers up to three snakes; annual renewal required
Minot	Banned	Large constrictors remain illegal; only smaller species like corn snakes and ball pythons are allowed

Fargo takes the most permissive stance of the three. City comparisons note that Fargo’s ordinance is broader, prohibiting any “wild or exotic” animals including poisonous snakes, crocodiles and alligators, but allowing residents to have non-poisonous snakes. Since boa constrictors are nonvenomous, they generally fall outside Fargo’s exotic-animal ban.

West Fargo took a stricter starting position before shifting toward regulated ownership. City ordinance history shows that West Fargo’s ordinance prohibits residents from possessing any poisonous, venomous, constricting, or inherently dangerous member of the reptile or amphibian families, including rattlesnakes, boa constrictors, pit vipers, crocodiles and alligators. That blanket ban has since given way to the permit system described in the previous section, which explicitly carves boas back out of the prohibited list for permit holders.

Minot remains the strictest of the three cities for boa owners specifically. City records show that large constricting snakes, such as reticulated and Burmese pythons and boa constrictors, as well as all venomous snakes, remain illegal to keep in the city, even after the city council voted to allow smaller constrictors like corn snakes and ball pythons.

Pro Tip: Zoning matters too. If you live on agricultural land outside city limits, municipal snake ordinances typically do not apply to you at all, though county zoning restrictions can still come into play depending on your parcel classification.

These same city-by-city inconsistencies show up across other North Dakota animal ordinances. Compare how differently municipalities treat breed-specific dog restrictions in North Dakota or how nuisance animal complaints get handled at the local level, and the same pattern of state permissiveness paired with municipal restriction appears again and again.

Penalties for Illegally Owning a Boa Constrictor in North Dakota

Penalties for keeping a boa constrictor without required permits, or in a city where the species is banned outright, come almost entirely from municipal code rather than state statute. West Fargo’s permit ordinance offers the most detailed published example.

Under that ordinance, permits must be obtained prior to bringing any snakes into the city, and failure to obtain a permit results in a $100 fine and 10 hours of community service or both, the same penalty structure applied to unlicensed dogs and cats. Taking a permitted snake out in public without prior approval carries a steeper consequence: snake keepers who wish to take their animals out in public require police approval, and the penalty for doing so without approval is a $250 fine or 25 hours of community service.

Beyond fines, animal control officers in banned-species cities like Minot can confiscate a boa constrictor outright. Local shelter directors have flagged a real practical problem with this enforcement approach, noting that the local animal shelter would not have the resources or staff to house snakes if they were surrendered or escaped, since there is nothing in town that supports snake rescue. In practice, that means a confiscated or surrendered boa may face rehoming difficulties well beyond the fine itself.

If a boa constrictor escapes and causes property damage, injures someone, or triggers a public nuisance complaint, owners can also face civil liability similar to other animal-related incidents. The general legal exposure follows a comparable pattern to what happens after a dog bite in North Dakota or violations under local leash and animal-control ordinances, where the animal’s owner bears responsibility regardless of the species involved.

Common Mistake: Assuming that because a snake is legal to buy from a breeder or pet store, it is automatically legal to keep at your address. Retailers are not required to verify your city’s ordinance before selling you an animal, so that verification step falls entirely on the buyer.

The safest approach if you already own a boa constrictor in a restrictive city is to contact animal control proactively, ask about permit or grandfathering options, and get any approval in writing rather than assuming enforcement will overlook an existing pet.

Bottom Line for North Dakota Boa Owners

North Dakota’s state framework treats boa constrictors as low-risk pets that generally do not need a state permit, and federal law does not restrict boas the way it restricts Burmese pythons or green anacondas. The real compliance work happens at the city level, where Fargo, West Fargo, and Minot each draw the line differently on the same species.

Before you bring home a boa constrictor anywhere in North Dakota, verify your specific municipality’s current ordinance, keep any required permit paperwork up to date, and confirm whether breeding or reselling plans trigger additional state licensing. That extra step of homework is the difference between a legally owned pet and a costly surprise from animal control.