If you searched for whether you can own a cougar in Rhode Island because you saw an old listicle claiming the Ocean State issues personal big-cat permits, you are working from outdated information. Federal law changed the entire landscape for private cougar ownership in December 2022, and Rhode Island’s own wildlife regulations were already narrow long before that.
This guide walks through what state law actually says, how the 2022 federal ban layers on top of it, what the permit process looks like on paper, and what happens to residents who try to keep a mountain lion without authorization.
Pro Tip: Before assuming any exotic pet listicle is current, check the publication date. Big cat ownership rules changed nationwide in December 2022, and many older articles never got updated.
Is It Legal to Own a Cougar in Rhode Island
No, not for a private resident. The cougar, scientifically known as Puma concolor, falls under Rhode Island’s regulations governing the importation and possession of wild animals of the order Carnivora. Under those rules, all exotic and native wild animals and hybrids of the order Carnivora for which there is no USDA conditionally licensed or unconditionally licensed rabies vaccine are expressly prohibited from importation or possession without the issuance of a valid permit by the Department, and possession is restricted to bona fide researchers, USDA licensed exhibitors authorized to possess animals of this order for short-term exhibition purposes, and Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) certified facilities…