5 Animals You Can LEGALLY OWN In The UK WITHOUT A License

The United Kingdom is quite strict when it comes to owning exotic animals compared to other places around the world like the USA where you could have pretty much anything. For instance, in 2024, the UK banned the XL Bully breed of dog and although that might seem strict, it isn't actually the strictest and there are quite a lot of things that you can legally own in this country without a license and I reckon all five of these in this video today are going to surprise you. Let's get on to number one. The Wallaby. Fuzzy and small looking kangaroos from, you guessed it, Australia. A docile animal that does well in groups and can breed prolifically. They love to eat grass and can do a good job of keeping your garden lawns trim. There are multiple types of wallabies but the ones most people tend to have are red necked wallabies but it's not uncommon for people to also have palmer wallabies. The common red necked ones people have though stand at just under one meter in height and they weigh around 15 to 20 kilograms. They are usually found in little groups called mobs in their homelands of Australia and can be mostly found on the eastern coast as well as Tasmania. A lot of zoos or wildlife parks around the world will tend to have open enclosures where you can be in and amongst these little cuties and can even feed them. That's right. Little fuzzy kangaroos and that. You can own them. Now before I tell you about people owning them here I should probably give you a brief overview of things you can't actually have in the UK. So here in the UK we have what is known as the Dangerous Wild Animals Act. This is basically a law that prevents the majority of people owning dangerous animals here in the UK. You need to apply for this license to be able to own certain animals. Things like elephants, big cats, Tasmanian devils even. There's a whole list on the government website to tell you what you cannot have. Now this came into play in 1976 and before then you could literally own anything you wanted. It was mental. No license. No problem. You could have it. Just up the road from me in a place called Southam there used to be a zoo and my mum tells me stories of the guy who owned that place. He used to walk his lion to the post office. He also had chimpanzees that were used in various TV ads as well as a black leopard that was used in Gary Neumann's song She's Got Claws. It was a different time back then and you can't have all of this now without a license. Also you can't have any animal considered to be an invasive species here. Things like the raccoon and the raccoon dog. You're not allowed it mate. But pretty much anything else that's not included on those two lists you can have it. It is absolutely fair game. You don't need a license. Things like our fuzzy mate the wallaby. There are literally farms in the UK that will breed them and sell them to you for £400. They can just go in your garden and eat the grass. Wealthy people have done and still continue to do this. They will buy up some wallabies and let them just eat the grass around because then they don't need anyone to go and do it. The wallabies are doing it. But that is also partly the reason now why we've got wild wallabies living here in the UK. They're escape artists and these gardens, they literally look out and think that grass is greener. They escape. Animal number two on this list is going to be the capybara. Yeah, these oversized guinea pigs. They used to be a part of the dangerous wild animals list, but they got removed. A really cute animal that appears to be friends with absolutely anything and everything, even humans. Found in their native range of South America, capybaras are an internet sensation with songs dedicated to them. They stand around 60 centimeters tall with a length of 1.2 meters and a weight of somewhere around 50 kilograms. They're called giant guinea pigs for a reason. Similar to wallabies, though, a lot of zoos around the world will have capybaras free roaming because they're so chill. Capybara mate, get yourselves one of them if you want one, because why not? Again, very similar to the wallabies. There are lots of people with lots of land and lots of wealth that will have capybaras and they escape. Actually, a few years ago here in the UK, Steve Baxall, who is a big time TV presenter when it comes to wildlife, he was kayaking down a river and he saw a capybara. Now, capybara need quite a lot of space and they're semi-aquatic, so they need quite a lot of water as well. They're also super sociable, so actually, instead of one, you're probably going to need quite a few. I did a quick look online for this and in the UK, I couldn't see anyone selling a capybara. But abroad, it was a different question and you could look to spend up to £1,000 for one single capybara. Now, just because there is no license needed for a capybara, that doesn't mean you should be going to get them. As cool as an idea as it is to have a capybara in your garden, build yourself a pond and then it's a capybara paradise, you shouldn't be doing it. I just don't think that's right, if I'm honest. If you are finding this video interesting, drop a like on it. Let's get into number three. The fennec fox. A super cute and adorable little thing hailing from North Africa. It's like a weird mix of cat and dog and just flipping, look at their faces, aren't they just precious? Fennecs stand at around 20 centimetres tall with a length of around 40 centimetres and a tail almost half that size at around 20 centimetres. With a whopping scale shattering weight of around one kilogram. Basically, they're quite small. In fact, they're the smallest canine on the planet. Their ears though, massive. They have fantastic hearing abilities with these big giant ears, they can hear the slightest sound from a good distance away. Yeah, you can have fennec foxes and there's literally no problem with that whatsoever. You don't need a license, just get one. This one, the price isn't even that high either. You can get yourself a fennec fox for 500 quid, but again, like the capybaras, they are very sociable. You don't want to just get one, you want to get multiple. I feel like one fennec fox on its own would be quite cruel, but again, they're very social animals so you're not going to have to get one, you're going to have to get multiple. So you're not talking 500 quid, you're talking more than that, but even so, just don't get one. They're high energy and nocturnal, so you can imagine that in your house, it would be utter carnage. And I've got no experience with fennec foxes myself, but from the reading that I've done online for this, they're not very cuddly either. So what's the point? It's just a hyperactive night cat that wants to be around a load of mates. So if you actually want to sleep, these aren't for you. Moving on to number four though, we've got the meerkat. Yeah, Alexander and that fella from the TV ads. Hailing from Southern Africa and living in big social groups, there are no laws denying you the opportunity to own them if you wanted to. Meerkats are around 30 centimetres in length with a tail around 20 centimetres and a total weight not even hitting one kilogram. They eat a variety of things that can include venomous scorpions and spiders, which may sound super rock and roll, but really it's easy for them because they're practically immune to venom. Not totally immune, there are some venomous animals that can hurt them, but on the whole, they scurry around knowing not much is going to damage them in the way of being stung. Flipping meerkats. Meerkats? Like, what is that about? And actually, funnily enough, for the research of this video, I saw three of them for sale for £1,000 and that was right here in the UK as well. How mad is that? But these aren't the sort of animals you can just have knocking about your living rooms. They need a lot of care, they need a lot of attention and they're also highly sociable as well, but not even that. They need a very suitable habitat and we just don't have any of that here in the UK. And speaking of, if you watched my previous video about six animals that you can find wild here in the UK that shouldn't be here, you will have heard me talk about meerkats. A group of them escaped a wildlife park in Scotland and it's thought that they could still be out there today. Just living wild in Scotland, meerkats. Now that's not backed up or substantiated in any way, it could all just be hearsay and it's not actually true. But it goes to show, if you put these animals in the wrong hands, stories like this pop up and it's not good. And really, the thing at effect here is the meerkats, the animals themselves because they shouldn't be in a place like Scotland, flipping heck, they must be absolutely shivering their chubs off. The final animal on this list is going to be the skunk. It looks like our European badger but just fluffier and smaller. Coming from North America, they're renowned for their potential stink which puts a lot of people off owning them. Skunks are around 80cm in length including the bushy tail and weigh around 5kg. They typically go through their adult life living on their own, they're omnivores and will eat almost anything, like honestly, they aren't picky at all. If it's on the ground and edible, they're probably going to have a go on it. And we all know them for their stink spray but this is a last resort tactic they'll use against predators or if they feel threatened in any way. They don't just waltz around blasting that stink off, that would be a very stinky world. And actually, this is the one animal on this list where you are required by law to do something or to not do something in order to keep it. Basically, you can have a skunk, no problem, no problem whatsoever. You can go online and you can see them for sale right now in different colours and everything for 700 quid. The only thing you need to be mindful of when it comes to a skunk is you can't remove their scent glands. Before, this was fine, you could do that, get rid of that stinky scent gland. How good is that? You've now got a non-stinky skunk. But now, you are, by law, not allowed to do that. But you can own the skunk, so you have to have a stinky skunk rather than a non-stinky skunk. But you are allowed to keep them, no problem. Just don't get rid of that thing. Again though, like the other animals on this list, they are a bit difficult to look after, probably not recommended and it's just not something that everybody should have, you know? They're very cute, obviously. I mean, just look at the things, they're absolutely adorable. But that doesn't mean they're going to be cuddly and your best mate. I once did a video with an organisation that went around rescuing exotic pets that had escaped or were released into the wild. And this organisation told me that in that one year, in the one county, they rescued five skunks. It remains to be seen whether these skunks were released or if they had escaped. Still, five of them, one county in one year, is insane. And at one point in time as well, it was thought that skunks were living, thriving in the Forest of Dean. Again, that's pretty mad, isn't it? And the only reason this sort of stuff can happen is because you are legally, without a licence, allowed to keep them. Now, I don't condone owning any of these animals. If you haven't got the space, the facilities or just anything in that regard to help these animals get the life that they deserve, you shouldn't be doing it. And if I'm totally honest, I actually think there should be a law change when it comes to this sort of thing. There needs to be some sort of restriction when it comes to what you can and what you can't own in the UK. There is something already in place, but I feel like for these animals that I've mentioned, there probably needs to be something strengthened, right? Essentially, you don't want these animals getting into the wrong hands. But if you enjoyed this video, though, check out this one up here about six animals that you can find in the wild that should not be here in the UK. Some of them that I've mentioned in this video, they're in that one. But I just want to say thank you for watching. I'll see you for more adventures and for more interesting topics like this in the future. Subscribe. Take care.