Slinger considers ban on keeping exotic pets
Ordinance patterned after Thiensville's
By PETER MALLER
pmaller@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 21, 2004
Slinger - Yet another community in southeastern Wisconsin is preparing to prohibit ownership of alligators, monkeys and venomous snakes and most other exotic pets.
The Slinger Village Board is considering an ordinance that would ban residents from keeping wild animals and wolf-dog hybrids in their homes.
No undesirable pets appear to be living in the community, but village officials want residents to know that crocodiles, prairie dogs and Gambian rats are among the species considered unwelcome, Village Administrator Patrick DeGrave said.
"We wanted to have the ordinance before we have a kid walking down the street with an 8-foot boa constrictor wrapped around his neck," DeGrave said. "It's just time to be proactive rather than reactive."
Slinger's ordinance, patterned after one adopted by Thiensville in February, would also ban caimans, lizards longer than 5 feet, non-venomous snakes longer than 6 feet and venomous amphibians and invertebrates.
Such a ban is needed, DeGrave said, because exotic pets can pose a danger as the village continues to become more densely populated.
The ordinance was introduced at a meeting this week. Trustees will review it at meetings May 3 and 17 before voting on it, DeGrave said.
Slinger's proposed ordinance was drafted after DeGrave examined samples of similar rules adopted by 15 municipalities. Residents have recently been banned from keeping various types of exotic pets in Germantown, Waukesha, Muskego and other communities.
Germantown's ordinance, approved in summer, is among the most detailed. It makes the village off limits to hippopotamuses, hyenas, jaguars, leopards, lions, lynx, pumas, cougars, mountain lions, panthers, ocelots, tigers and "other wild felines."
Slinger's proposed ordinance says that the ban "includes, but is not limited to," the animals listed.
"I remember when I was (the town administrator) in Mount Pleasant in the late '70s, there was an individual there who had a lion, and he was asked politely to get it out," DeGrave said.
"If I remember correctly, he took it up north, and it mauled a child. We want to prevent something like that from happening here."
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