ALBANY – So much for hanging with your pet pachyderm.

Newly introduced legislation would officially ban New Yorkers from keeping pets such as elephants, hyenas, rhinoceroses and whales, after years of controversy surrounding a Long Island business peddling sloths and kangaroos.

“Not only is this unethical, but it’s a public-health and safety concern,” state Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Long Island), who is sponsoring the bill, told The Post about keeping wild animals at home.

“These animals have characteristics which require specific conditions and environment to survive. Currently, some of these animals, such as the red kangaroo can grow as high as 6 feet tall and weigh up to 200 pounds,” she said.

“A sloth is naturally nocturnal, mostly deaf and blind in bright daylight.”

The bill still lacks an Assembly sponsor, though Martinez insisted that the idea has “strong support” among her colleagues.

State law currently bans people from raising “companion animals” such as lions, tigers, and grizzly bears while theoretically allowing the possession of other questionable pets.

These include hyenas, rhinoceroses, elephants, kangaroos, whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, walruses, emus, ostriches, anteaters, and armadillos – all of which would get banned if the bill passes the state Legislature and gets signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The proposed ban would not apply to zoos or animal sanctuaries.

There are few, if any, examples of New Yorkers adopting some of the species, but people have raised eyebrows by acquiring several others, to the surprise of their neighbors.

A kangaroo hopped around Staten Island in 2015 after escaping the same home where a pet zebra made a break for it and ended up in traffic three years before.

“When [the Health Department] first got here, they questioned me about the whereabouts of the zebra,” the man told The Post at the time. “And I told them, ‘I don’t have to tell you anything about the zebra. It’s just not here.’ ”

Some wild animals can get violent when interacting with humans.

Emus violently pecked a drunken man in England when they encountered him last year after he jumped a fence into their animal sanctuary.

“The driver is throwing kung fu kicks and punches, and the emu is moving its neck out of the way and jabbing him in the ribs and the head. It really must have hurt,” a witness said.

A Michigan girl also was bit by a sloth at a pet store last month after her dream of cuddling one of the slow-moving mammals turned into a bloody nightmare.

John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and president of Humane Long Island who supports the new legislation, said it is no surprise that bad things can happen when people focus on cute things such as furriness while overlooking obvious dangers.

“These are solitary wild animals with orange claws and sharp teeth, and they belong in the tropical rainforest,” Di Leonardo said of sloths.

He expressed similar concerns about New Yorkers who might be fantasizing about playing fetch with a hyena, saddling up an elephant for a ride around town or maybe deploying a smaller creature such as an anteater to patrol their kitchens.

“These are very dangerous animals, and our traditional shelters are not equipped to care for these animals when people realize how dangerous they are and how ill-equipped they are to care for these animals,” he added.

But Sloth Encounters Long Island in Suffolk County — state Sen. Martinez’s district — remains open for business despite years of efforts by local officials to close it down.

The business only sells to people who can care for animals such as sloths, said owner Larry Walsach, who respectively retails the notoriously languid furballs and kangaroos for up to $7,000 and $5,000 each.

“Good private ownership means good private ownership, and if you meet the criteria to be a good owner, why shouldn’t you do it?” he told The Post on Tuesday, while pushing back at the proposed legislation that might end his trade in exotic pets for good.

“It’s all bulls–t,” he added, stressing sloths are “great pets.”

The state proposal comes as New York City Council members are currently considering legislation that would ban elephant captivity in the five boroughs, including at zoos.

Di Leonardo said the state’s legislation is a good step to avoid disasters no matter how unlikely it might seem that someone would bring animals into their homes that are not domesticated animals like cats and dogs – such as, say, an elephant.

“The more common sense animals we can get added to this the better,” he said.

“Obviously, no one should be keeping a whale or a sea lion. I mean, these are intrinsically wild animals who suffer greatly and endanger the public when they’re they’re kept in someone’s home,” he said.