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NEWS & OBSERVER (Raleigh, N Carolina) 22 May 05 Exotic-pet lovers stalk state bill - Legislators heed outcry, soften proposal limiting ownership (Martha Quillin)
Andrew Wyatt has, at his Outer Banks home, two Burmese pythons, an African rock python and a number of reticulated pythons, in addition to his more ordinary collection of corn, king and milk snakes. All told, maybe 100 reptilian linear feet, some of which are capable of squeezing to death a teenage boy.
But it was Wyatt, not one of his serpents, who showed his fangs recently when a state legislator proposed restricting the private ownership of exotic snakes, cats, wolves and dozens of other nonindigenous species out of a concern for public safety and health. In response to the bill, a surprised Sen. John Garwood got more than a hundred calls, e-mail messages and letters from people who thought it infringed on their rights.
Garwood, a Republican from Wilkes County, introduced Senate Bill 1032 in March, two years after a 10-year-old boy in his district was killed by a tiger his aunt kept in the back yard. Garwood, who hasn't even had a dog since his children left home, has no expertise in exotic animals. His bill was written by officials of the N.C. Zoological Park in Asheboro, who asked Garwood to sponsor it after the child's death.
"I didn't have any idea there were as many people involved in this," Garwood said last week, "people keeping snakes and this, that and the other in their house, and breeding these animals and selling them on the Internet. I mean, it's crazy.
"There's got to be some controls on it."
In 1995, a pet tiger mauled and seriously injured a 3-year-old boy in Wake County as his father held the beast on a leash. The man was convicted of misdemeanor child abuse, and the attack spurred local authorities to restrict or ban some exotic animals.
Those who opposed Garwood's bill said the dangers of exotics were being wildly overstated; that the regulation gave the state zoo and a trade group to which it belongs too much influence; that the bill made no distinction between the lethality of 3-pound rodents and 400-pound cats; that it inadvertently omitted some dangerous species; and that it should be considered a personal decision to decide whether to share your home with an ornery critter as long as it's well cared for and doesn't menace the neighbors.
"The only way a lot of these animals could be considered inherently dangerous would be if you didn't know the facts," said Wyatt, who leads eco-tours along the North Carolina coast, does educational programs with his snakes, and breeds pythons for sale. Dogs and horses, he said, cause many more injuries than snakes. "But reptiles are easily preyed upon because of the cultural bias that goes back to the Garden of Eden."
Wyatt formed the N.C. Association of Reptile Keepers eight weeks ago -- in response to the bill -- and has become the group's de facto president and ambassador for exotic snakes.
Although exotic-animal enthusiasts acknowledge some regulation may be in order, they have reacted strongly to the broad ban Garwood proposed. They used the same avenues by which they buy and sell animals and learn to care for them: the Web and a twice-yearly exotic-animal show at Dorton Arena in Raleigh.
The Carolina Reptile and Exotic Animal Show, now in its eighth year, billed its exotic-animal petting zoos, performing parrots, an Amazing Pet Trick contest, pictures with Bubba the camel and a stage show by Big Snake Daddy.
Earlier this month, while patrons perused the booths of 160 exhibitors offering chameleons, hybrid cats, heavy-duty cages and specialty feeds, opponents of the ban circulated petitions.
Last week, Garwood backed off. He has support for his effort to exert some control over exotics, which have been the culprits in several highly publicized incidents in recent years. But under pressure from the exotic-animal lovers, Garwood withdrew his bill and submitted one calling for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources to study what regulations are warranted and report in time for the 2006 session.
"The big targets are the big biters, big scratchers, and big disease carriers," said David M. Jones, executive director of the N.C. Zoo and a longtime advocate of exotic-animal regulation. "It's very much a male thing -- you know, the tiger on the leash. It's macho stuff. It's one step up from the Alsatian dog pack."
Lorraine Smith, the zoo's curator of mammals, helped put together Garwood's original bill. Part of the zoo's interest in limiting private ownership of exotics is the time and resources zoo staffers spend each year fielding calls from alarmed people who hear strange snarling from behind their neighbors' fences, and from owners who have exotics they no longer want.
"The people who purchase these animals are really unaware of the disease issues, or the potential for injury, and they're not given very good information," Smith said.
The nine-page bill defined "inherently dangerous animals" and listed four dozen examples.
"I have a problem with the list," said Kindra Mammone, who runs CLAWS, a nonprofit rescue, rehabilitation and educational operation for exotic animals out of her home outside Chapel Hill. She has about 75 animals in cages indoors and in her fenced back yard and is licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A USDA inspector visits several times a year to make sure Mammone meets the requirements of a wildlife exhibitor.
As she talks, seated at the head of her dining room table, a pet raccoon peers out of its quarters in a tall enclosure over her left shoulder. She also has a fennec fox; arctic foxes; three species of possums; Patagonian cavies, rodents related to the chinchilla; and brush-tailed bettongs, kin to the kangaroo.
She gets up and lifts from another cage a kinkajou, one of many animals she regularly takes into classrooms to talk about the need to conserve wildlife habitat. The kinkajou is a South American relative of the raccoon, which weighs less than 5 pounds but has sharp claws. When it gets nervous, it dives down Mammone's shirt.
"What this law does," she said as the kinkajou poked its head out of her neckline, "is equate this little guy with a tiger."
As a rehabber with permits from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Mammone would have been able to keep her animals under the proposal, but she says the bill's caging requirements would have cost so much that she couldn't afford to.
Many animal rescuers believe there should be some regulation, with an educational component, if only to prevent mismatches of people and pets. Tigers, monkeys, bears, snakes and iguanas have all been rescued in North Carolina when they grew bigger than their owners anticipated.
"About two months after that exotic-animal show, I start getting calls," Mammone said. "People say, 'Oh my God, this thing is huge,' or, 'I had no idea what it was like to live with a wild animal.'
"And I think, 'Have you never watched television? Have you never seen a Disney movie?' "
Kathryn Smith, an exotic-animal enthusiast in Craven County, also has mixed feelings about regulations. She gave up her snakes, her monkey and her big birds before she got married, but doesn't think she needs the government to tell her whether she's smart enough to keep them safely.
"It's the same way with people and their damn dogs," she said. "Somebody will get a great Dane and six months later say, 'I didn't know it was going to get so big.'
"There's the one side of me that says, 'I don't want anybody regulating anything,' " she said. "And then there's the other side of me that says, 'I don't want somebody living next door that has a lion and a tiger in their back yard in a pen that they got at Wal-Mart.'"
Local Rules
Although no federal or state laws govern the keeping of exotic animals as pets, several North Carolina counties and municipalities have local ordinances banning the possession or housing of exotics. Among them are Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham and Lee.
The Statewide Proposal
Sen. John Garwood's bill, now withdrawn for further study, would have required that owners of exotic animals register with the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, providing their name and address, a description and photo of the animal, and the name of the veterinarian providing care. They would have to show proof of insurance and a plan for capturing the animal in case it escaped. All cages would have to meet standards of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.
Animals targeted by the bill were those capable of inflicting serious or fatal injuries, with the potential to become a menace to the public health or indigenous wildlife. Listed examples included lions, tigers, leopards and any other cat not considered a domestic cat; wolves, foxes and others of the dog family except domestic dogs; all bears except black bears; kangaroos; rhinoceroses; all primates; elephants; crocodiles; seven families of snakes; and Gila monsters.
Exotic-pet lovers stalk state bill

NEWS HERALD (Morganton, N Carolina) 23 May 05 Pets or Predators? Local folks have their say on snakes and the like (Kerri McFalls)
Morganton: A Wilkes County Senator is asking state agencies to look at regulating exotic pets. The News Herald lets local people weigh in on the issue.
Pro
Ed Davis doesn't think exotic animals belong in anyone's home.
Davis, an animal cruelty investigator for Burke County Friends For Animals, thinks animals such as large cats, wolves and monkeys should stay in their natural habitat.
He doesn't think it's fair to the animals to be caged up and believes some type of law should regulate exotic pets.
"I don't see why people would even want an animal like that because they are natural predators," Davis said. "They are always having problems with them getting loose."
Davis thinks it's OK for people to own some exotic animals, like snakes.
"If a responsible person has them, I don't see a problem with it," Davis said. "Snakes are mostly kept in tanks. Irresponsible owners are the problem."
Davis said if a snake gets loose, however, it will likely die.
"They can't feed themselves," Davis said. "They've been fed (on) rabbits and stuff and that's it."
Con
Robert Clark doesn't think everyone should be punished for a few irresponsible people.
He disagrees with any laws that would regulate exotic pets.
Clark, who breeds exotic snakes, believes as long as people are responsible they should be able to own any pet they want.
"The people who are irresponsible should be the ones punished," Clark said. "Just because someone is irresponsible doesn't mean everyone else isn't doing the right thing."
Clark breeds Burmese pythons. He has 11 full-grown snakes.
One female snake, Sheba, weighs 65 pounds and stretches 12 feet long.
"I've got snakes that are big enough to do harm but so tame you can hand feed them," Clark said. "But in irresponsible hands, especially with small children, they can be harmful."
Clark said he keeps his snakes in a separate building from his house.
The snake cages and building remain locked.
"When people own those type of (pets) they have experience with them," Clark said. "No one jumps into exotic animals. Safety comes first."
Pets or Predators? Local folks have their say on snakes and the like