Can You Own a Cougar in Maryland? What State and Federal Law Say

If you searched for whether you can own a cougar in Maryland, the short answer is no — and it hasn’t been legal for more than two decades. Maryland banned private cougar ownership back in 2002, and a federal law passed in 2022 closed the door nationwide for anyone who might have considered crossing state lines to get around it. Between overlapping state and federal statutes, county ordinances, and strict liability rules, Maryland is one of the toughest states in the country to legally keep a big cat of any kind.

This guide breaks down exactly what Maryland Criminal Law says, how the federal Big Cat Public Safety Act layers on top of it, who qualifies for the rare exemptions that still exist, and what penalties you’d face for ignoring either law.

Is It Legal to Own a Cougar in Maryland

No. The cougar (Puma concolor) — also known as the mountain lion, puma, or panther depending on the region — is one of the species named directly in Maryland’s dangerous animal statute. Maryland bans private ownership of a specific list of animals under its dangerous animal statute, Criminal Law § 10-621. The wild cat ban covers lions, tigers, leopards, clouded leopards, snow leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, cougars, and any other non-domestic feline.

What makes Maryland unusual is that this isn’t just a single-layer restriction. The state ban stands on its own, and it’s now reinforced by a federal law that prohibits private big cat ownership across the entire country. If you’re also curious how this compares to other big cats, the same statute applies to owning a lion in Maryland, since lions fall under the identical wild cat ban.

Pro Tip: Don’t assume a permit from a breeder or out-of-state seller makes cougar ownership legal in Maryland. Neither a bill of sale nor a USDA license from another state overrides Maryland’s own possession ban.

What Federal Law Says About Cougar Ownership

Even if Maryland repealed its own ban tomorrow, federal law would still make private cougar ownership illegal. The Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA), a bill championed by the Animal Welfare Institute, was signed into law by President Biden in December 2022, marking a step forward for public safety and animal welfare. The BCPSA prohibits private individuals from possessing lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, cougars, or any hybrid of these species.

The law didn’t strip existing owners of their animals outright. The law grandfathered in private owners with big cats already in their possession, but required them to register so authorities would know where these animals are. That registration window has already closed. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, if an owner did not register each big cat in their possession with the USFWS by 11:59 p.m. on June 18, 2023, they are in violation of the law, unless another exception applies.

Exemptions exist, but they’re narrow. Licensed exhibitors, accredited zoos, universities, and wildlife sanctuaries that keep the public at a safe distance can still lawfully house cougars under specific conditions. The act revises requirements governing the trade of big cats under the Lacey Act to limit the possession, breeding, and exhibition of big cats, and the Lacey Act prohibits importing, exporting, buying, selling, transporting, receiving, or acquiring big cats across state lines or the U.S. border. You can read the full statutory language through the official Big Cat Public Safety Act public law text.

Maryland’s Laws on Owning a Cougar

Maryland’s ban on cougars long predates the federal law. Under this Maryland law, a person may not import into the State, offer for sale, trade, barter, possess, breed, or exchange the following species of animals: foxes, skunks, raccoons, bears, caimans, alligators, crocodiles, wild cats, wolves, nonhuman primates, and venomous snakes. The statute was originally adopted in 2002, meaning Maryland has criminalized private cougar possession for well over 20 years.

The law isn’t limited to cats. It sweeps in an entire category of animals often associated with the exotic pet trade, including species covered in Maryland’s rules on venomous snakes and other venomous animals in Maryland. That overlap is intentional — lawmakers grouped species by the physical danger they pose to the public, not by taxonomy.

Interestingly, the cougar also carries formal conservation status in Maryland, even though the species disappeared from the state generations ago. Eastern cougars “disappeared” in the late 1800s, and the bobcat and eastern cougar are included on the list of “Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Animals of Maryland.” If you want to see the broader list of species Maryland tracks for conservation purposes, the state’s endangered animals in Maryland resource covers it in more depth.

Law	Effective Since	Covers Cougars?	Maximum Penalty
Maryland Criminal Law § 10-621	2002	Yes — named as a “wild cat”	Misdemeanor, fine up to $1,000
Federal Big Cat Public Safety Act	December 2022	Yes — named specifically (Puma concolor)	Up to $20,000 fine and/or 5 years in prison

Permits and Requirements for Cougar Ownership in Maryland

A small number of entities can still legally hold a cougar in Maryland, but the bar is high and getting higher. The holder of a Class C Exhibitor’s License under the Animal Welfare Act may acquire or breed a nonhuman primate, bear, lion, tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, snow leopard, jaguar, cheetah, or cougar if the holder maintains a liability insurance policy of at least $1,000,000, has at least one paid full-time staff member trained in the care of each species kept, and has an animal disposition policy for placement of animals if the facility closes.

Even licensed exhibitors face a hard cutoff on new acquisitions. Even licensed exhibitors cannot possess a nonhuman primate, bear, lion, tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, snow leopard, jaguar, cheetah, or cougar that they did not already own on June 30, 2014. In practice, that means no new cougars are entering licensed Maryland facilities through ordinary acquisition — only animals already on-site before that date remain lawful.

Maryland also has a history of issuing individual wildlife permits, though the process is far from a rubber stamp. A Cougar possession permit was created in 2007. When an exotic is kept as a pet, the owner or custodian must apply to the Department for an Individual Permit, which becomes null and void when ownership transfers to another person; a separate Individual Permit is required for each exotic animal, and the Department may run a background check on the applicant. Combined with the federal ban and the 2014 exhibitor cutoff, these state permit mechanics are now largely historical rather than a realistic path to ownership.

Anyone researching Maryland’s broader wildlife permitting system — including how the state handles seasonal wildlife management — can find useful context in resources on Maryland’s deer hunting season and dove hunting season regulations, both of which show how the Department of Natural Resources structures wildlife permits and licensing more generally.

Important Note: Sanctuaries, AWA-licensed research facilities, and veterinarians are exempt from the general ban, but these exemptions exist for institutional operators, not private individuals looking to keep a cougar as a pet.

Local Laws That May Apply in Maryland

State law sets the floor in Maryland, not the ceiling. This section does not limit a county or municipality from enacting laws or adopting regulations that are more restrictive pertaining to any potentially dangerous animals. In other words, a county could theoretically add extra registration requirements, containment standards, or outright local bans on top of the state ban — though given that cougar possession is already illegal statewide, most county rules focus on animals that fall into legal gray areas.

Maryland requires anyone possessing a regulated animal to register with the local animal control authority, and local county or city ordinances may impose additional restrictions or requirements beyond state law. This local layer is the same reason towns and counties across Maryland maintain their own rules for far more common animals. For comparison, see how local jurisdictions handle backyard chicken laws or rooster ownership laws — both areas where county and municipal codes add requirements on top of state agricultural rules.

Some neighboring states take a notably different approach. The closest states to Maryland that do not regulate private exotic animal collections this way are West Virginia, and North & South Carolina. That regional gap doesn’t change Maryland’s own law, but it explains why exotic animal cases occasionally make headlines when animals are transported across state lines.

Penalties for Illegally Owning a Cougar in Maryland

Breaking Maryland’s exotic animal law carries real consequences, and the penalties stack when both state and federal law apply. Violations of Maryland’s dangerous animal statute are a misdemeanor carrying fines up to $1,000 for individuals. That’s the state-level exposure alone.

Federal penalties are far steeper. A person who knowingly violates the Big Cat Public Safety Act must be fined not more than $20,000, or imprisoned for no more than five years, or both, and the act considers each violation to be a separate offense. That “separate offense” language matters — a person illegally possessing, breeding, and transporting a single cougar could face multiple counts stacked from one animal.

Beyond fines and jail time, the animal itself isn’t safe from legal consequence either. Big cats bred, possessed, imported, exported, transported, sold, received, acquired, or purchased contrary to the provisions of the Act are subject to seizure and forfeiture. Federal enforcement has already produced real cases. In one BCPSA prosecution, the man who purchased a tiger cub faced up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, while his associate who helped conceal the crime faced up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. While that case involved a tiger rather than a cougar, the same statute and penalty structure applies equally to cougars.

Maryland exhibitors face an additional, narrower penalty if they use a cougar in a traveling show. A 2024 Maryland law prohibits the participation of a bear, cougar, elephant, jaguar, leopard, lion, nonhuman primate, or tiger in a traveling act, and provides for a civil penalty of $2,000 per violation. Governor Wes Moore signed the measure, which subjects violators to civil penalties of up to $2,000 per violation, and it became effective October 1, 2024.

There’s also a civil liability angle that many people overlook. In Maryland, strict liability is the law for cases involving exotic animals, meaning that if you own such an animal and it injures someone or damages property, you can be held liable for damages even if you weren’t at fault. That standard applies regardless of how well an animal is cared for, and it exists independently of the criminal penalties tied to illegal possession in the first place.

Key Insight: Because state misdemeanor fines, federal criminal penalties, forfeiture, and civil strict liability can all apply to the same animal at once, the real financial and legal exposure for illegal cougar ownership in Maryland goes far beyond a single fine.

Maryland’s combination of a two-decade-old state ban and a newer federal law leaves essentially no legal path for private cougar ownership, aside from a shrinking pool of pre-2014 licensed exhibitors. Anyone drawn to big cats is better served supporting accredited sanctuaries or wildlife conservation programs than attempting to navigate a legal framework built specifically to prevent private possession.