Reptile & Amphibian Forums

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE LAWS ARE ON KEEPING LARGE SNAKES IN ILLINOIS.I HAVE HEARD CONTRADICTING OPINIONS ON THE SUBJECT. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THE LAW ACTUALLY STATES. PLEASE DON'T RESPOND UNLESS YOU KNOW THE ACTUAL LAW, NOT WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD. LIKE I SAID THIS PERSON SAYS ONE THING AND ANOTHER CONTRADICTS IT> THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Honastly the best way to find out for sure what the laws are would be to contact the DNR or fish and wildlife or whatever the organization is in Illinios regarding wildlife. The maintain and enforce the laws and another thing you must consider is the fact that most counties maintain their own set of regulations concerning the keeping of snakes so if you check wiht the DNR they will be able to tell you the laws for your specific area. Sorry about the extremely long run on sentence but it jsut come to me as I was typing. Todd

I would not bank on those departments knowing or understanding the law as well as they should. The best thing to do is look up the law yourself. If something seems too vague or condradicting, local animal control can provide their interpretation so you can at least know what you are dealing with. Most are pretty clear though.

Try municode.com. they have county/city codes of ordinance for most states. otherwise, the local library should have all state laws on hand.

Scott Ballard, the state herpetologist with the IL Dept of Natural Resources, is one of the nicest guys you will meet and he will gladly clarify all of the various issues pertaining to the dangerous animals act and what the true definition of a "life threatening reptile" in Illinois. Many folks in IL will tell you that any constrictor over 6' is illegal due to the dangerous animals act...but that comes out of sheer ignorance of the law. The IDAA is administered by the Dept of Ag. that has jurisidiction over pet stores and retail markets; not individuals. The IDNR adheres to the latest court case in which it was determined that a constrictor under 14' is not considered a life threatening reptile. But, as Todd mentioned, state law is overruled by local ordinances and many municipalities have very strict and ignorant restrictions on the keeping of reptiles. Hope this helps a bit, Rob

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
City of Lake Forest Parks & Recreation (IL)

The town I used to live in (Manly Iowa) bans all "dangerous animals" within city limits. I was told that ANY constricting snake was classified as a dangerous animal by the city code-all because of one person who, the year before had some type of kingsnake(sorry I don't know species but heard it from my father while I was in NC at Basic Training) get loose and the responding officer who found and caught it(AND later shot it) didn't like snakes. I couldn't gat a 3 foot snake at the same time a woman 3 blocks away, still in city limits had a wolf-what's going to potentially cause more damage IF it gets loose?

n/p

What you are doing is telling someone to break the law. Regardless of how much we disagree with the law it is still a law and we all must obey it. It is situations like that that creates panic and brings bad publicity to our hobby. This is the reason that every year more and more cities are passing legislature about the keeping of these animals. Bad advice. Todd

I am responding only to reinforce what Rob stated. Many animal control and other enforcement representatives in IL are unfamiliar with the legalities outside of their own township and even within in some cases when it comes to herps. Regardless of the true legality, you can still get in trouble just by the "perceived" legalities when dealing with law enforcement.
As an example of law enforcement confusion: Oak Park, IL bans "constricting snakes" and I was called in to pick up a ball python that was found. The officer asked me if he could have given it to one of the neighbors that expressed interest saying since it was not a boa constrictor is wasn't illegal....