Where is the African grey parrot legal?

Birds Psittaciformes Psittacidae Agapornis personatus Masked lovebird Captive Bred Only ... Melopsittacus undulatus Budgerigar Captive Bred Only ... Psittacula eupatria Alexandrine parakeet-blue form Captive Bred Only

Vermont is an inverted-list state and the African grey falls through all three of its lists. 10 V.S.A. § 4709 bars bringing in, transporting or possessing any live wild bird or animal without authorisation, and the Unrestricted Wild Animal List closes the loop by saying a species found on none of the Restricted, Unrestricted or Domestic lists is considered Restricted. the African grey is on none of them: the Unrestricted list's birds are the rock dove, the European buzzard, a run of estrildid finches and the canary, with no psittacine at all, and the Domestic Species List's psittacine section is a closed list of about thirty species that names the budgerigar, the cockatiel, the lovebirds, the rosellas, the conures and Psittacula, and stops. What makes Restricted a ban rather than paperwork is Regulation 881: "the Commissioner shall not issue a permit for the keeping or possession of any wild animal in captivity, except for bona fide scientific or educational purposes". There is no pet category to apply under. The Domestic list was published in August 2010, six years before the IUCN moved Psittacus erithacus to Endangered, so its absence is not a conservation judgment. It is one of the most commonly kept parrots in the country and Vermont has never listed it.

How this rule works: The third of Vermont's three lists and the one earlier sittings could not read; it extracts cleanly with pypdf from this URL, fetched with a browser User-Agent. It is what makes the domestic cat, the dog, the ferret and the domestic rabbit lawful in a state where anything unlisted is Restricted. Its bird section is a closed list of about thirty psittacines, every one marked Captive Bred Only, and it decides the parrot cells: budgerigar, cockatiel, lovebirds, rosellas and Psittacula are on it, and Cacatua, Psittacus and Myiopsitta are not.

Order Psittaciformes* All Species in Order Psittaciformes (Parrots) Except for: Myiopsitta monachus; Cyanoliseus patagonus; Enicognathus leptorhynchus; Enicognathus ferrugineus; Family Strigopidae

The whole parrot order is cleared, but the asterisk carries the footnote that removes anything on CITES Appendix I or listed by the IUCN as Endangered. The African grey is both: it moved to Appendix I on 2 January 2017 and was assessed Endangered in 2016, months before this list was published. So the one parrot most people think of is outside the clearance while a macaw is inside it.

How this rule works: The list 12 M.R.S. § 12152(1-A) requires the department to maintain and 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.06(1) describes: species needing no importation, exhibition, propagation, research or possession permit, which pet shops may also trade. Dated 11 August 2017 on every page, and this is the version IFW still serves. Three headings do most of the work: Reptilia, Serpentes and Testudines each carry "Captive Bred Origin Only", and an asterisk on an entry removes anything on the USFWS injurious or threatened and endangered lists, in CITES Appendix I, or on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild.

List of Birds. (a) The following groups of birds are prohibited without a permit: 1. Species categorically non-exempt pursuant to 321 CMR 9.01(3). 2. Migratory birds listed in the Code of Federal Regulations, 50 CFR 10.13. 3. Any other bird native to the United States and Canada. (b) Except for species listed in 321 CMR 9.01(11)(a), the birds or groups of birds may be kept without a permit: ... 6. Psittacidae (parrots and their allies)

The family exemption for Psittacidae is expressly subject to 9.01(11)(a), and clause 1 pulls out anything categorically non-exempt under 9.01(3). Psittacus erithacus is assessed by the IUCN as endangered, so it falls inside 9.01(3)(b) and outside the parrot clearance. This is the clearest illustration on this map of why the categorical bar has to be read before the group listing: on the group listing alone an African grey is an ordinary pet parrot in Massachusetts, and it is not. MassWildlife's own guidance is blunt about what that means in practice: permits for non-exempt wildlife "are issued only for certain scientific, educational, commercial, or other specific reasons" and "You will not be issued a permit for keeping a wild animal as a pet." The statute is less absolute, since § 23 contemplates "an individual license for an animal that is not on the special exemption list" and even sets a preference for captive-bred animals where wild depletion is an issue, so the licence exists on paper and the agency says it will not grant one for a pet.

How this rule works: Massachusetts runs a closed white list and says so in terms: a species not on it, or listed as requiring a permit, is not exempt from M.G.L. c. 131, § 23. Two structural points decide most of this state. First, 9.01(2) defines "species" as a "distinct non-domestic VERTEBRATE animal population", and § 23 itself reaches only fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, so terrestrial invertebrates are outside the scheme entirely. Second, 9.01(3) is a categorical override that most readings of this rule miss: no species may be exempted if it is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, appears in the IUCN Red Book(s), or is on the Massachusetts endangered, threatened and special concern list at 321 CMR 10.90. Nearly every group listing in 9.01 repeats the cross-reference, so it operates as a live carve-out rather than as drafting furniture, and it is what pulls the Burmese python out of Boidae, the crested gecko out of Gekkonidae and the box turtle out of the turtle allowance.

Psittacus erithacus

Named by binomial on the conditionally approved list.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Birds: ... vi. African gray parrot - Psittacus erithacus; ... NJ Fish & Wildlife classifies any animal as endangered when it is listed on any relevant State or Federal endangered species list, including but not limited to the US Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species List, IUCN Red List, and the New Jersey Endangered Species List.

Two documents the Division publishes point opposite ways at this one bird. The 4.3 permit list names the African gray parrot, Psittacus erithacus, as a species a permit may be issued for, which would make it an ordinary permit animal. The restricted species notice then says the Division classifies any animal as endangered when it appears on the IUCN Red List, and Psittacus erithacus has been Endangered there since the 2016 assessment, which would put it under the notice's rule that endangered species may not be kept as pets for any reason. The 4.3 list is old enough to still call macaws permit species "except endangered forms", so the tension looks like a list that was never revisited rather than a deliberate exception. Recorded as unresolved because a keeper cannot tell from the published documents which one the permits office applies.

How this rule works: The Division's restricted species notice. It reproduces the 4.8(a) table and then adds things that are nowhere in the rule text: that it treats an IUCN Red List entry as an endangered listing, that only nine named corn snake morphs may be kept, and that axolotls and larval salamanders may not be kept at all.