SPCA shelter in Stanton received five boa constrictors in less than a week
BY ROBIN BROWN / The News Journal
09/24/2005
In less than a week, five constrictor snakes have arrived at the animal shelter in Stanton. That's got the director worried, hoping the snakes are an exception and not the start of a bad boa boom.
Experts say reptiles have grown as popular and mainstream as tropical fish among hobbyists who are well-educated and responsible -- but the situation at the shelter shows what can happen when snakes slither into the wrong hands.
"There is a very large pet trade in reptiles and amphibians," said Jim White, considered Delaware's top snake expert. "It's huge."
He and other reptile experts hope the sudden surge of boas is a rare exception and not a growing trend.
John Caldwell, longtime director of the Delaware Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the agency has housed more than five snakes at a time, on rare occasions. "But never five boa constrictors that I can remember," he said.
The strong-bodied snakes, known for their ability to squeeze the life out of their prey, are not good pets -- and without permits, owning them is illegal in Delaware, Caldwell said.
An 8-foot Argentina boa and three 4- to 6-foot boas were found abandoned Sept. 16 at William Penn Village Apartments near New Castle after a tenant's eviction. (A cat found there also was taken to the shelter.)
But it was an odd phone call Monday that brought the last of the five boas to the SPCA.
Wilmington police called the SPCA after officers stopped a man walking in the 400 block of S. Van Buren St. with the snake around his neck. That snake, about 5 feet long, was seized when the young man said he did not have a permit to own it.
Beyond the Delaware Department of Agriculture permits required to keep boas anywhere in the state, New Castle County bans exotic reptiles in residential areas. Common reptiles -- such as iguanas, geckos, chameleons and others often sold at pet shops -- are allowed.
Caldwell said he thinks there should be another law. He said that law should ban snake owners from selling to anyone without a permit.
He said that would ensure that snakes were bought only by qualified, permit-holding care-takers, such as zoos, wildlife centers and animal professionals working in educational contexts, such as Delaware's well-known children's educator-entertainer "Jungle" John LaMedica.
LaMedica, who lives near Newark, is one of fewer than 100 New Castle County residents who have reptile permits. After a Stanton man was found dead in his home among numerous illegal snakes a few years ago, an ordinance was enacted to restrict snakes in residential areas and stop new permits. LaMedica was among the dwindling number of people who already had permits and were "grandfathered."
"The joke is, it's easier to get a gun permit in New Castle County than it is to get a reptile permit," he said.
LaMedica said the Stanton man who prompted the county ban was an uncommonly poor caretaker of snakes, as were the former owners of the boas now at the SPCA.
The young man who police found walking with his snake around his neck had been thrown out of his house, along with his two dogs, after his mother grew sick of his failure to care for them properly, LaMedica said. The New Castle apartment tenant clearly was irresponsible if he would leave animals behind when evicted, he said.
Growing in popularity
LaMedica, who visited the SPCA and examined the boas, shares Caldwell's concern about the possibility of a trend in illegal snakes, which he said could damage the hobby.
Keeping reptiles has become as popular and mainstream a family hobby in recent years as keeping tropical fish, LaMedica said. The Internet made information about reptiles easily accessible, and hobbyists now can enjoy thousands of Web sites, newsletters and chat rooms, as well as resulting clubs and magazines.
"In the '70s, when I started keeping reptiles, there was nothing," he said.
Wanting to share the positive side of reptiles, he graduated from zookeeping school in Florida, worked at Brandywine Zoo, then went into the snake business nearly 20 years ago. "Every state has educators similar to me," he said.
But state laws vary and the public rarely is educated in reptile law, he said. For example, he said, few people know Delaware requires permits for all non-native snakes, and few know that venomous ones -- like those found with the Stanton man -- already were banned.
"People have no clue that there's a law at all," he said.
And -- as with pythons, pit bulls or any kind of creature -- there is a percentage of impulse buyers and people who do not understand, or are unable to meet, the animals' care and feeding needs.
'Wild animals'
The SPCA shelter rarely gets even one boa a year, Caldwell said. Five at once raised his eyebrow toward a trend he hopes to quash.
"These are wild animals, zoo animals," he said. "I don't understand why people have them. It's totally mind-baffling."
Experts caution would-be owners not to get snakes simply because they are fascinating -- and available.
White, of the Delaware Nature Society, said all kinds of reptiles and amphibians are sold at shows in Maryland and Pennsylvania: "You could buy a rattlesnake if you wanted," White said. Sellers at such shows do not ensure buyers' ownership will be legal in their home states.
"You buy it," he said, "but wherever you live, you have to abide by the law. A lot of people don't know that."
White said snakes' unique limblessness naturally fuels people's fascination and desire to own them. But he warned that any buyer should know applicable laws or risk losing animals they should not have to start with.
The seized and abandoned boas at the nonprofit SPCA shelter are not up for adoption, Caldwell said. The SPCA plans to place them in appropriate environments with experts who have permits to care for them.
At the SPCA, the boas have their own enclave. Away from the adoptable cats and dogs, they slink in aquariums and cages, warmed by sunlamps, on a diet of live rodents.
Not that Caldwell minds his uncommon guests. But he is a man more used to canines and felines.
He hopes not to see the snake colony grow and said, "This is such an unusual sight."
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