BRANDON SUN (Manitoba) 02 September 04 Judge cuts showman a break over smuggling two snakes (Eliza Barlow)
Texas reptile showman Daniel Conner never thought marrying a vegetarian would land him in a Canadian court.
But that's just where the 47-year-old San Antonio resident found himself Wednesday, pleading guilty in Brandon federal court to smuggling two pythons into the country in a bag of tortilla chips.
Maximum penalties for his two charges totalled $75,000 and a year in jail, but after hearing of Conner's bizarre ordeal, Associate Chief Judge Brian Giesbrecht handed down a fine of just $50.
"There has already been a penalty," Giesbrecht told court. "The two small snakes will not return with him."
Giesbrecht's compassion was apparently a high point during the numerous months Conner has spent in a sea of red tape, trying to secure the proper paperwork to clear the way for his travelling reptile show.
"I'd move to this town just so I could support that judge," Conner declared outside court in his Texas drawl.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Conner's menagerie of 20 snakes, half a dozen lizards, three large turtles and several crocodiles - a small fraction of the animals he raises back home - remained stopped in the no-man's-land between the Canadian and U.S. borders south of Boissevain.
While Canadian authorities had the proper paperwork to let one of Conner's albino Burmese pythons into Canada, a clerical error left United States authorities without the proper paperwork to let the python back in, Conner said.
"The amount of paperwork is simply mind-boggling," Conner said, as he prepared to drive back from Brandon to the border Wednesday to care for his animals.
Conner, who had never brought his show to Canada before, said an agency had booked him to take his travelling show to a series of small-town fairs in Alberta and Saskatchewan for a few months this summer.
His first run-in with Canadian authorities - apart from the reams of federal and provincial documentation he had to secure to bring his exotic animals into the country - happened as soon as he tried to cross the border at Boissevain on July 1.
As court heard yesterday, Conner had secured travel paperwork for almost all of his animals before he left San Antonio. But as he was leaving, it occurred to Conner he didn't have any papers for his two ball pythons.
Leaving them at home was not an option, because his vegetarian wife couldn't stomach having to feed the two carnivores their diet of live little creatures.
So Conner, knowing full well he'd be breaking Canadian law, decided to take his chances with the pythons, who were still small at two years old.
"He decided all he could do was hope for the best," said defence lawyer Wendy Stewart.
As he approached Canada, Conner took the two snakes, put them in a small cloth bag and hid them in a half-eaten bag of tortilla chips.
"I knew I wasn't going to eat any more chips because I'd run out of hot sauce a few thousand miles ago," he said.
"I hid them like a drug dealer would - that's what hurts me the most."
Zealous Canada Customs officials, however, were too thorough to overlook the bag of chips when they searched Conner's van and trailer as he was trying to come into Canada.
"They completely took my van apart," Conner said, shaking his head in amazement and noting that U.S. officials had missed the snakes when they checked his van at Dunseith, North Dakota.
The two ball pythons - a species protected by an international treaty that regulates the trade and transport of threatened animals - were confiscated and taken to the University of Manitoba's zoology department, where they remain. Conner agreed Wednesday to forfeit the snakes.
"I'm very sad about them, very upset," he said.
Crown attorney Rob Martens, recommending total fines of about $2,000, told court that Conner had intentionally broken an important law that's meant to protect threatened animals.
"This is an individual who was fully aware of the requirements ... He knew full well he was not allowed to bring these animals in," Martens said.
"Any attempt to get around the regulations is a very serious matter."
But Giesbrecht was more sympathetic, noting that Conner had simply been "babysitting" the snakes and had not intended to sell them while in Canada.
After the pythons were confiscated, Conner was allowed to continue on his way, taking his show to fairs in Weyburn, Medicine Hat, Saskatoon and Lloydminster.
He's hoping the current border snarl will be combed out in time for him to make the Utah State Fair on Sept. 8.
Conner said what pains him the most about landing in court is that he now has a criminal record and likely will never be allowed back into Canada.
"I had a great time up here," he said. "The people in Canada were just so goddang nice."
Judge cuts showman a break over smuggling two snakes