AURORA SENTINEL (Colorado) 13 June 06 Council committee weighs softening ban on some creatures - Lawmakers move to draft proposal to OK permits for banned snakes, lizards (J.C. O'Connell)
Aurora: The city is giving short shrift to snakes and lizards that are longer than three feet, according to at least one Aurora resident who brought his concerns to local lawmakers on June 12.
Jeff Marmaro, who uses the reptiles to demonstrate proper care to children, told code enforcement committee members June 12 he wants the city to lift its ban on all constrictor snakes, monitor lizards and snakes longer than three feet because the majority of these animals are harmless.
“These animals do not pose any sort of a threat and are used routinely around the country, around the world in settings in classrooms and in Scouts,” said Marmaro, who said he keeps his snakes in double sets of cages at his home and once took a large monitor lizard for a walk on a leash next to his furrier pets without incident.
Code Enforcement Policy Committee members said they would consider loosening Aurora’s relatively strict ban on some creatures. The committee directed staff to draft a proposal that would let residents obtain permits to keep some banned pet snakes and lizards in their Aurora homes, assuming they were used for educational purposes.
City council would have to approve any changes to reptile policy.
“I’m not into this nanny business,” said Councilwoman Molly Markert. “I’d just as soon not have the regulations (banning some reptiles) unless they were for a safety reason. Understanding that there’s safety element involved, I’d like a permit process or an educational permit.”
Marmaro said the city could ban three or four “offending” types of snakes — like Burmese pythons and green anacondas — while allowing snake breeds with no track record of violence — milk snakes and rainbow boas — to live in Aurora and grow longer than three feet.
“To sort of throw the baby out with the bath water and say ‘We’re going to get rid of all snakes just because there are some bad characters out there,’ I personally find that a little bit onerous,” Marmaro said. “Some of (the monitor lizards) get particularly nasty; well I do Pinewood Derbies, and I can say the same thing about some parents.”
The city adopted a ban on all constrictor snakes, monitor lizards and snakes more than three feet long in 2002 after an 11-foot pet Burmese python fatally strangled its owner.
Council committee weighs softening ban on some creatures