ON Press: Official to seek lizard ban
THE RECORD (Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo, Ontario) Official to seek lizard ban; Owner would rather go to jail than lose T-Rex, his beloved Asian water monitor (Deirdre Healey)
Guelph: The city should ban giant lizards like the one that escaped from a wooden cage in the backyard of a Guelph home Friday, a Guelph Humane Society official said yesterday.
"This animal is in the same ball park as a crocodile or alligator. It's huge," Dan Usas, supervisor of animal services with the Guelph Humane Society, said of Fred MacPherson's 1.5-metre-long Asian water monitor lizard.
"I don't feel it is an appropriate animal to keep in an urban setting. This thing needs a zoo exhibit."
While crocodiles and alligators are among the 17 different types of animals prohibited under the city's exotic animal bylaw, giant lizards are not.
A weekend hunt for the six-year-old Asian water monitor lizard named T-Rex has alerted city officials that giant lizards were missed when the bylaw was written in the late 1970s, said Usas.
"When they were putting the bylaw together, they didn't think anyone would have a pet like this."
MacPherson's unusual pet escaped Friday morning from a cage in the backyard of his sister's Grange Street home, where he's staying, after snapping the leather leash tying him down and breaking open the door.
The 24-kilogram reptile was on the loose until Sunday night when he was found roaming through a neighbour's backyard.
MacPherson, who has raised T-Rex since he was a hatchling, said he won't give up his beloved pet if giant lizards are added to the city's list of prohibited exotic animals.
"I would go to jail before I gave him up," said the 43-year-old, who has been bombarded by inquiring reporters for the past two days, all wanting a glimpse at the runaway lizard.
He said it would be discriminatory for the city to ban large lizards since some small lizards can be just as vicious.
"If the lizard is raised properly and is not abused, they won't be aggressive. In fact, as a lizard grows older they become more tolerant and lose their fear of predators."
At six-years-old, T-Rex is still a juvenile lizard, MacPherson said, adding his pet reptile may live another 30 years and grow close to 2.5 metres and 70 kilograms.
T-Rex managed to escape Friday because he was in a temporary wooden cage that was not strong enough for the powerful reptile, MacPherson said.
MacPherson is currently building a one-by-four metre wooden cage for T-Rex, complete with a miniature pool.
He said he has had lizards as pets for the past 20 years and has researched the proper living conditions the finicky reptiles require.
But Usas said he is concerned about MacPherson's ability to properly take care of the giant lizard.
"It needs specialized lighting or it can't digest its food properly," he said. "It needs a certain temperature or it gets sick.
"This is an animal that needs more than the average person can give it."
The Asian water monitor lizard, which is most commonly found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, is also a risk to public safety, the humane society supervisor said.
"It has very sharp, nasty teeth, a strong jaw and a powerful, long whip-like tail. We are very fortunate we found it before it made its way to the river. Who knows where it would have ended up then," Usas said.
Usas plans to visit MacPherson's home and take a look at how the lizard is being cared for.
The next step will be to recommend city council make an amendment to the exotic animal bylaw to include giant lizards, he said.
