Are Roof Rats Legal in Hong Kong? Keeping, Breeding & Selling

Keeping / owning   Legal

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-07-08

AFCD confirmed in writing (8 July 2026, Import and Export Division): ‘This Department does not regulate the keeping of rats’, so keeping a domesticated Rattus rattus needs no keeping licence. Consistent with the prior finding that R. rattus is not a protected wild animal (the family Muridae is omitted from Schedule 2 of the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, Cap. 170). One overlay remains outside AFCD’s remit: the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132, s.47) defines all rodents as ‘vermin’, a duty the FEHD enforces on a complaint/infestation basis (elimination notices, not raids on sanitarily-caged pets).

Sources: AFCD (correspondence on file), Hong Kong e-Legislation, Hong Kong e-Legislation, Hong Kong e-Legislation

Breeding   Legal

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-07-08

Private, non-commercial breeding is unregulated: Hong Kong created dedicated breeder licences only for dogs (Cap. 139B), leaving small mammals unregulated at the breeding stage. AFCD noted (8 July 2026) that a licensed animal-trade premises must run a mammalian-pest control and destruction programme, so keeping or breeding R. rattus on LICENSED (commercial) premises may contradict that licence, but this bites only at the commercial tier; hobbyist breeding of a kept pet is not licensed and is unaffected.

Sources: AFCD (correspondence on file), Hong Kong e-Legislation, HK Government

Selling or giving away   Legal with a permit

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-07-08

Giving a pet’s offspring away free (no consideration) is unregulated, and a statutory hobbyist exemption covers selling an animal ‘kept by him as a pet or any offspring thereof’ (Cap. 139B s.4). Commercial sale ‘by way of business’ needs an Animal Trader Licence, but AFCD noted (8 July 2026) that a licensed premises must run a mammalian-pest control programme, so selling or keeping R. rattus on licensed premises ‘may contradict’ that requirement. Practical effect: free and hobbyist rehoming is fine; a formal commercial trade in R. rattus runs against its own licence.

Sources: AFCD (correspondence on file), Hong Kong e-Legislation, HK Government

Transport & import   Prohibited

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-07-08

This record encodes the IMPORT position, which is the binding hard rule. AGENCY-CONFIRMED (AFCD, 8 July 2026, Import and Export Division): AFCD ‘will not issue an import permit for [Rattus rattus] importation for domesticated pet purpose’ because R. rattus is a designated rodent-control pest. An advance import permit under the Public Health (Animals and Birds) Ordinance (Cap. 139) and the Rabies Ordinance (Cap. 421) is otherwise required for any mammal, and importing without one is an offence, but for a pet R. rattus that permit will not be granted, so there is no lawful pet-import pathway. Internal movement of a lawfully-kept pet within Hong Kong is unencumbered (subject only to the humane-transport duty, Cap. 169). Never release into the wild.

Sources: AFCD (correspondence on file), Hong Kong e-Legislation, AFCD, Hong Kong e-Legislation, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD)

• Source a pet from local captive-bred stock (no lawful pet-import permit is available)
• For free rehoming, no licence is needed; commercial sale needs an Animal Trader Licence, which conflicts with the licensed-premises pest-control duty

Forms: AFCD Special Permit (Form AF240) · Where: Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) · Fees: Import permit HK$432 first animal + HK$102 each additional

Source: AFCD, Hong Kong e-Legislation