Tougher rules urged for exotic animals
After changing the rules on where animal cages can be, Pinellas leaders have asked state agencies to tighten other restrictions.
By NICOLE JOHNSON
Published March 7, 2005
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Like most infants, Kira sleeps in a soft, cushy baby crib a stone's throw away from her mommy.
But at 18 months, she's getting too big for the little wooden frame. Soon she'll join her sisters and start sleeping in a hammock in a caged room with walls painted like a jungle.
A little weird, you say?
Not to monkey-mommy Gini Valbuena, who keeps three chimpanzees - Kira, Kenya, 3, and Tanzee, 7 - in her two-bedroom Clearwater home.
"I didn't ask for a bike or a doll at Christmas growing up," said the cosmopolitan version of Jane Goodall, with a jet-black bob haircut and french manicured toes. "I just wanted to have a monkey."
But a recent decision by Pinellas County to require cages containing livestock and some exotic animals to be set back from property lines has suburban exotic animal owners like Valbuena contemplating heading for the hills.
"More regulations are just not an option for some of us," she said. "We've been here for years without any real problems and now all of a sudden they want to put rules on top of rules."
Previously, the cages were not regarded as structures and could sit anywhere on a property. Set-back requirements will vary depending on zoning classifications, but will range from at least seven feet for cages in single-family residences, to 25 feet for people living in agricultural estate districts.
The new rules don't directly affect current exotic animal owners like Valbuena, because they are grandfathered into the former rule and regulated by the state. But county officials are hoping that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will follow their lead and toughe n their own requirements on exotic animals.
In addition to monitoring fishing, boating and wildlife safety in the state, the conservation commission regulates the licensing, permitting and monitoring of the hundreds of locations where exotic animals are kept across the state.
The animals are broken down into three classes. Class I animals, including tigers, chimpanzees, bears and venomous snakes, are generally considered dangerous and can be used only for business or educational purposes. Class II animals are potentially dangerous, such as coyotes or cougars. Class III animals are not as dangerous and include certain crocodiles, raccoons and non-venomous snakes.
The state is aware of 32 Pinellas locations where Class I and Class II animals are kept.
Last month, the county sent a letter to the conservation commission outlining five concerns and recommendations for ways to better regulate these animals.
"What we're concerned about is what you've seen recently in other places where these people are permitted and not followed up on," said Kenny Mitchell, director of Pinellas County Animal Services."If we see things that are a concern, we obviously have to speak to them and if we can prevent things from becoming a problem, we should tell them."
The county's suggestions include requiring exotic animal owners to submit disaster plans to local emergency management departments and to require venomous snake owners have antivenom readily available. Currently these are not Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission requirements.
Pinellas is the latest in a string of local authorities to express concern with the state conservation commission's enforcement of captive wildlife.
"It's our way of emphasizing the importance to maintaining the health and welfare for the general public," said Lois Kostroski, executive director of the Florida Animal Control Association, which serves as an umbrella organization for animal control service departments across the state. "We have found out these animals that should not be pets in the first place are getting out, and then they become the local animal control's responsibility."
In January, the Florida Association of Animal Services sent nine recommendations to the commission on how to better regulate, including requiring signs at each entrance to the property where dangerous wildlife are kept, and creating a Web site that would allow residents to determine the location of dangerous wildlife.
Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties have submitted similar laundry lists of concerns and recommendations.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say they encourage dialogue with localities, but they maintain their current rules are some of the most stringent in the country.
"I think a lot of it is ignorance of the law," said Capt. John West of the Investigation Division of Florida Fish and Wildlife."Most don't understand what these owners have to go through to possess these animals. It's not willy nilly. They must go through lots of requirements."
People must be licensed to keep a Class I or Class II animal. To get that license, they must complete 1,000 hours of training and have a year of experience with that type of animal. They must also have two letters of reference related to their experience and verify that they have appropriate caging.
A permit is required to keep Class III animals. The permit requires taking 1,000 hours of training or 100 hours and passing a test on care for that animal. Class III animals can be kept as pets.
West said the commission inspects Class I and II animals at least three times a year. Class III animals are inspected at least once a year.
Of the 1,000 commission officers throughout the state, only 18 are charged with monitoring exotic animals in captivity. Three investigators are assigned to the Pinellas-Hillsborough area.
"We think we have an excellent system, as far as monitoring this industry," West said. "Granted, people get around certain things, and, yes, things happen, but all in all we probably have the best system in the country that doesn't ban these animals."
In the last several years, there have been no deaths or serious injuries to the public associated with escaped captive wildlife, West said. But there have been close calls.
In August 2003, a Tampa man was hospitalized after being bit by his pet black mamba snake.
Last July, a 600-pound tiger belonging to a former Tarzan actor escaped in Fort Lauderdale, sending authorities on a 26-hour hunt before the tiger was shot and killed.
And in early February, an Oldsmar woman was bitten on the hand by an infant tiger on exhibit at a local car dealership. A few weeks ago, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers had to tranquilize an adult tiger that escaped from its cage at the Panther Ridge Sanctuary in Wellington, Fla.
The issue of exotic animals in Pinellas County came to a head one morning when Commissioner Ken Welch saw a tiger in a cage on the back of a pickup in his St. Petersburg neighborhood.
"I made the rest of the commission aware of what I had seen and contacted our animal services department," Welch said of the incident that occurred in September. "I knew we could not regulate this, and we aren't attempting to."
Still, Welch said the experience merited a look at the rules on these animals.
"We're a changing county and as we become more densely populated, I think it's always good to ask if the regulations that made sense in 1955 still make sense in 2005."
But local exotic animal owners claim state and federal agencies regulations are sufficient.
"They think we're this bunch of crazy people, but we are not, we're just different," Valbuena said. "For us, these animals are our lives. To give us more restrictions would be adding to a system that isn't broken."
Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala agrees with Valbuena.
"They're being taken care of. We don't need anymore responsibilities," Latvala said. "When it's being done by one entity, we don't need to get involved, especially if it's being done well."
Curt Stanford, who keeps about 40 nonvenomous rat snakes in his north Pinellas home, said it's an issue of education. Stanford, a member of the Suncoast Herpetological Society, has invited Pinellas commissioners to a workshop on snakes.
"I think once you educate yourself about these animals that have these bad reputations, you figure out it's mostly undeserved," Stanford said. "As a society and as individuals who enjoy exotic animals, we really try to be as responsible as we can with the ownership."
--Nicole Johnson can be reached at 727 771-4303 or e-mail
njohnson@sptimes.com Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.