The newest batch of reptiles to make the SPCA shelter their home include three aggressive corn snakes, a red-tail boa, a ball python, a small snapping turtle, a large albino Burmese python, a large boa, a medium-size unidentified snake and an American alligator.
The dilemma now for the folks at Delaware's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is to find homes for the creatures, seized Tuesday from a Hockessin home.
The only other alternative is to euthanize them, SPCA Executive Director John E. Caldwell said.
A ninth snake -- a 3-foot-long ball python -- also was confiscated Tuesday from a home in the 100 block of Christiana Road near New Castle, Caldwell said.
None of the snakes can be put up for public adoption because they are not indigenous to Delaware, which makes owning or possessing them without a state permit illegal. New Castle County, which has its own law, bans them altogether unless they are kept on a farm with more than an acre of property, state Department of Agriculture inspector Bob Moore said.
"They're illegal, you're not supposed to have them and they're still being sold," Caldwell said. "And the victims are the reptiles."
Caldwell said he has called the Cape May County and Philadelphia zoos, but neither facility is interested in them.
An educational facility in Lancaster County expressed interest, but can't take them for a couple of weeks because it is remodeling, Caldwell said.
"I'm having a difficult time placing them because there's an overabundance of snakes," he said.
Less than two weeks ago, five boa constrictors were brought to the shelter -- four found abandoned at William Penn Village Apartments and the fifth seized from a Wilmington man who was spotted walking around with the 5-foot boa wrapped around his neck.
"We've got a huge 10-foot-long snake in Sussex County whose owners turned it in last week," Caldwell said. "We are trying to place that one."
That makes 15 snakes recovered in less than two weeks -- all owned illegally according to state laws. "It's a problem that needs to be addressed with additional legislation," Caldwell said.
He said laws need to be changed to prohibit pet store owners from selling exotic reptiles that are illegal to own in the state.
Moore, of the state Department of Agriculture, said anyone seeking to purchase a snake at a pet store in Delaware must first get a permit. None is issued if the snake is poisonous.
"Many times, when people are buying these types of reptiles, they are impulse buys," he said. "But there are penalties in place for the pet stores if they are selling you a snake without a permit. They are breaking the law."
Moore said when inspectors make visits to the stores and ask to see the store's records, snake purchases are checked against state records to ensure the buyer had a permit.
Ben Klenk, manager of Pet Village at 1812 Marsh Road in Brandywine Hundred, said that although the store sells only a few pythons a year, customers must get a permit before they can purchase one.
For New Castle County residents, those permits are largely unavailable.
"It's up to a $500 fine if you do possess or harbor one of these things," Caldwell said. "We want to make the public aware that you can't have them without a permit."
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