Washington — unlawful possession of deleterious exotic wildlife (RCW 77.15.250)

Washington — unlawful possession of deleterious exotic wildlife (RCW 77.15.250)

Source: Washington State Legislature — RCW 77.15.250 (apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=77.15.250), extracted 2026-07-23. First-hand state-statute text; C1 substring-verified against pdf-raw/exotic-legality/wa_rcw_77_15_250.txt.

Washington criminalizes possessing certain exotic wildlife. RCW 77.15.250 is titled "Unlawful release or possession of fish, shellfish, or wildlife—Penalty—Unlawful release of deleterious exotic wildlife—Penalty." Under subsection (2): "A person is guilty of unlawfully releasing, planting, possessing, or placing deleterious exotic wildlife if the person knowingly releases, plants, possesses, or places live fish, shellfish, or wildlife within the state in violation of this title or rule of the department." Possessing deleterious exotic wildlife is the more serious offense — "A violation of this subsection is a class C felony." By contrast, possessing non-deleterious wildlife in violation of the title is a gross misdemeanor: "A violation of this subsection is a gross misdemeanor."

This covers the Washington "is possessing this exotic/deleterious wildlife as a pet unlawful?" question at the statute level. Unlike NY's blanket wild-animal ban or FL's species schedule, WA prohibits *possessing deleterious exotic wildlife* specifically (a class C felony), with a lesser gross-misdemeanor tier for other unlawful possession. CITES Appendix status is a separate federal/trade layer and is not addressed here.

Verbatim C1 claims (each a substring of the source file + this body):

1. "Unlawful release or possession of fish, shellfish, or wildlife—Penalty—Unlawful release of deleterious exotic wildlife—Penalty."
2. "A person is guilty of unlawfully releasing, planting, possessing, or placing deleterious exotic wildlife if the person knowingly releases, plants, possesses, or places live fish, shellfish, or wildlife within the state in violation of this title or rule of the department"
3. "A violation of this subsection is a class C felony."
4. "A violation of this subsection is a gross misdemeanor."