In the state of Oregon it is a FELONY offense for a single household to possess an aggregate total of ten or more animals, without a very expensive permit as an animal shelter.

My, senior citizen, mother has her spayed cat; and I have my Gopher snake and my Garter snake. That is three animals to start with.

As soon as one rat has a litter, the number of pups in that litter immediately puts me over the limit; unless she should have an exceptionally small litter. The fact that the rats are to produce snake food is totally irrelevant. Frozen rodents are simply considered dead animals, and are proof positive that the FELONY CRIME of animal hoarding has been committed. The fact that they are snake food is completely irrelevant.

Animal hoarding carries the mandatory penalties of: long jail time; and high fines; and community service hours; and worst of all, never being allowed to own, or have contact with any animals whatsoever for the rest of that persons life. If a convicted animal hoarder, so much as pets someone else's dog then they must serve further jail time. I think that these penaties are overly severe, but that's just the way that it is in Oregon.

Last year, I was told that I had to get rid of ALL of my live rats, and frozen rodents; or be charged with animal hoarding. Therefore, my Great Basin Gopher snake did not get enough to eat last year, and is hungry this year.

If I am going to feed rodents, I must breed my own, because the nearest pet store is over 130 miles away, one way; but breeding my own automatically puts me over the maximum number of animals that I can legally possess. If I were to buy frozen rodents online, which I doubt that my extremely finicky Gopher snake would even eat, they would just be considered more dead animals and also put me over the maximum number of animals allowed.

Therefore, since I do NOT want my snake to starve, I must find an alternative food source, that is not illegal.

[ Show Entire Thread ]