Servals are legal in Arizona if you have a permit. The permit (license) is restrictive. It states that no servals held under the licence may be sold, bartered, gifted, rented or traded to a location within the state. A person possessing a licence to own a serval can only dispose of that animal or the offspring of that animal by exporting it or them from Arizona to a licenced person or to a licenced game farm or zoo. The person receiving the serval or servals must provide written documentation that they are not domiciled or otherwise located in Arizona and that they are legally allowed to possess servals. The recipient must also describe how the possession of a serval or servals will promote the conservation of the species and that their possession is not furthering the pet trade industry including the “propagation of hybrid wildlife”. The last phrase must mean the creation of wild cat hybrids such as the Savannah cat. The recipient’s written document must be independently verified.
The licensee, that is the person with the licence to possess a serval in Arizona, must not “propagate, nor allow the propagation of servals with domestic animals or other non-wildlife species, nor possess domestic animals or other non-wildlife species for propagation with servals”. My interpretation of this condition is that the licensee cannot breed from a serval in their possession in Arizona and they cannot possess domestic animals which can mate with servals to create a wild cat hybrid.
Comment: the conditions of a licence to possess and own a serval in Arizona are quite comprehensive and restrictive.
Further comment: once again it is very difficult to find the exact and precise Arizona state legislation which states the dos and don’ts of serval ownership in the state. It would be much better if I could access with relative ease the specific legislation and find my answer there. The answer above comes from a person who obtained a licence and therefore (s)he she knows all about it. But I have to take what he says as the truth and I can’t verify this very easily. However, I believe that what I’ve stated above is correct and accurate. His cattery is: Donamae Cattery www.donamaed.com Phoenix, Arizona.
Other US states where you can own a serval with a licence are: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Maine.
You can own a serval without a license in Nevada, Idaho, Wisconsin, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and West Virginia. This information comes from the Spruce Pets website. I don’t know the source of their information. But the information seems to be trustworthy but this list is not comprehensive.
I believe that the Arizona law on this subject is A.R.S. 17-306. But please dig around the Internet to confirm this, if you wish. The first part of the reference number is the title of the legislation i.e. Title 17-Game and Fish.
