SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) 09 February 05 Man fined over croc (Geesche Jacobsen)
A Sydney man who kept a crocodile, a five-metre Burmese python and two iguanas in his Bondi bedroom without a licence was fined $1000 yesterday.
John Baptist Cavaleri, 35, kept the animals as pets in his one-bedroom flat, said outside Waverley Local Court yesterday.
Iggy, a green iguana, was his favourite and was "as tame as a cat or a dog", he said. The python, nicknamed Big Mistake, was about five years old. The 60-centimetre freshwater crocodile lived in a glass tank in the bedroom, he said. Cavaleri, who had pleaded guilty before to possessing protected fauna, still keeps cats and said he was licensed to keep monkeys.
"If I had had a frilled-neck lizard and a carpet python I would not be here today," he said.
But instead he had kept non-native protected animals without approval, which carries a maximum $11,000 fine and the possibility of six months in jail.
Cavaleri said he did not admit to owning the exotic animals under a recent amnesty by the Department of the Environment because the reptiles would have been taken away and killed.
The magistrate said the animals had not been mistreated and were in good health.
Taronga Zoo said the animals were in quarantine but would probably go on display. The iguanas would likely be added to the zoo's collection while the python would be sent to the Reptile Park near Gosford.
Cavaleri, who was also fined $350 for 21.5 grams of cannabis police had found in his unit when he called them after a fight with his then girlfriend, said he plans to try to get his animals back.
Man fined over croc