Lucille

Years ago it was true, but EVERY year PayPal updates its TOS, including policy changes. Here is this year's list of ineligible items:

Ineligible items and transactions

The following items or transactions are not eligible for PayPal’s Purchase Protection program:
Real estate, including residential property
Vehicles, including, but not limited to, motor vehicles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, aircraft, and boats, except for personally portable light vehicles used for recreational purposes like bicycles and wheeled hoverboards
Businesses (when you buy or invest in a business)
Industrial machinery used in manufacturing
Payments that are equivalent to cash, including stored value items such as gift cards and pre-paid cards
Payments made in respect of gold (whether in physical form or exchange-traded form)
Financial products or investments of any kind
Gambling, gaming, and/or any other activities with an entry fee and a prize
Donations, including payments on crowdfunding platforms as well as payments made on crowdlending platforms
Payments to a state-run body (except for state-owned enterprises), government agencies, or third parties acting on behalf of state-run bodies or government agencies
Payments to any bill payment service
Significantly Not as Described claims for wholly or partly custom-made items
Item Not Received claims for physical, tangible items you collect in person or arrange to be collected on your behalf. This includes items bought in a seller’s point of sale location, except if you paid for the transaction in person using PayPal’s goods and services QR code
Anything prohibited by PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy
Payments made using PayPal Payouts (formerly Mass Pay)
Personal Payments including payments sent using PayPal’s friends and family functionality
Payments that you have not sent using your PayPal account
Items intended for resale, including single item transactions or transactions that include multiple items.

Note that live animals are not on the list. Also note. however, that prohibited are items prohibited in the Acceptable Use Policy. While live animals are not on that list either, illegal items are, so if your reptile should by legally prohibited in a certain jurisdiction you will not have protection. Please note that the updates are annual, so that you should as a buyer or seller check the annual updates.

There IS a prohibition against live animals using Alternative Payment Methods, detailed here:

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/apm-tnc