Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida, has an interesting section on their website that covers many U.S. State laws for owning exotic cats. Apparently there are 18 States in the U.S. that have a ban on private ownership of big cats, but on the other end of the spectrum there is Wisconsin and West Virginia that have no regulation on this issue whatsoever. It just goes to show that between the 50 U.S. States there is a bewildering amount of legal differences when it comes to ownership of any exotic animals. As I've pointed out before on ZooChat, in approximately half of the U.S. it is still legal to own a chimp!
State Laws for Exotic Cats
State Laws for Exotic Cats