New York City, for example, bans people from keeping ferrets, snapping turtles, pythons, and scorpions as pets. It seems unlikely that a family would have a polar bear named Fluffy or a whale named Bubbles as a pet, New York City has specific laws banning these wild animals from residences. These laws exist for a good reason. In 2003, a man in a Manhattan apartment was discovered to have a 350-pound Bengal tiger as a pet.