BANNED! 6 Animals That Are Illegal To Own In Minnesota

If you took a poll of households in Minnesota, you'd see that 54% own a pet. Man's best friend, the dog, is the most popular pet choice. Cat lovers, I'm sorry, but your feline friend is bringing in the #2 top pick according to pawlicy.com.

But if your dream is to own something a bit more "exotic", you should know that a few animals have been put on the banned list in Minnesota.

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List of Animals That Are Banned To Own as Pets in Minnesota

If you read the Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, you might remember an article that focused on exotic animals that were once legal to own in Minnesota. Example, you could have had a baby jaguar shipped to the front door of your house before 2002...and that would have been allowed! Can you imagine!?!

Today, the list of pets banned throughout the United States has been fine-tuned. Every state has different requirements and different "standards" of what they think is acceptable for their land and residents.

Before you tell your kids that a new animal is coming to your home, scroll below to make sure you aren't promising one of the banned pets for our state.

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

Gallery Credit: Elena Kadvany

What Dogs Are The Smartest Breeds?

Now that I've crushed your dream of having a cheetah at your house, I thought I'd at least give you another option if you want to be one of the 66% of U.S. households that own a pet. And this option is a smart one, literally.

Dogs are the favored pet in Minnesota. In fact, dogs are the #1 pet in the entire world! If you are thinking that a dog would be the perfect addition for your lovely family, below are the breeds that have the most smarts. Commands like "sit", "stay", "heel", and "come" will take training but will be simple tasks for the dog breed below.

RANKED: Here Are the 63 Smartest Dog Breeds

Does your loyal pup's breed make the list? Read on to see if you'll be bragging to the neighbors about your dog's intellectual prowess the next time you take your fur baby out for a walk. Don't worry: Even if your dog's breed doesn't land on the list, that doesn't mean he's not a good boy--some traits simply can't be measured.

Gallery Credit: Sabienna Bowman