Collector fights to keep his 29 boa constrictors

AP

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah snake collector who says his rare boa constrictors are getting a bad rap has won at least a temporary reprieve from the Cottonwood Heights City Council after he had been ordered to remove more than two dozen of the exotic pets from his home.

Police cited Thomas Cobb a week ago for failure to have an exotic pet permit and told him he had until Friday to get rid of all but one of his 29 boa constrictors.

Cobb values the snakes at $12,000 apiece and said he spent $100,000 on a special room in his basement with top-of-the-line cages. Some of the snakes are as long as 7 feet. Police officers noted in their report the setup was clean and well-kept.

The council agreed on Friday to look into the case further after Cobb argued the ordinance is confusing at best. He'd gotten the attention of the council and the mayor after he took his fight against the snake eviction to the Internet and local radio shows. He maintains he's the victim in part of the public's distaste for snakes in general.

"We see movies, we see 'Snakes on a Plane,' we see 'Anaconda,' we see these movies where snakes are portrayed as monsters and can eat school buses, and that is not the case," he told The Deseret News.

Cobb praised the council for having an open mind.

"I am pleased to find that they are at least willing to take and investigate further rather than make assumptions and going off on maybe their personal belief on snakes and maybe the reptile hobby keeping in general," he said.

Cottonwood Heights police Sgt. Dan Bartlett said a neighbor spotted one of the snakes and called police to Cobb's home last week. He said officers also found 80 rats for feeding the snakes. He said they cited Cobb for failing to have the permit required when anyone owns more than one exotic pet.

Cobb disputes that interpretation of the local ordinance. He maintains he needs to show only that he can properly care for his pet, that they do not pose a danger to the public and that he has knowledge of the animal. He believes he passes all those requirements.

"They continue to tell me with an exotic permit you are only allowed one animal, which is not true. The ordinance itself is very ambiguous and it needs to be gone through more thoroughly," he said.

Among other things, Cobb said the ordinance is flawed because it defines an exotic pet simply as one not indigenous to the lower 48 states.

"Technically, any individual who owns a gerbil, anyone who owns a hamster, anyone who owns a chameleon, anyone who owns a red-bellied toad, anyone who owns a guinea pig, technically is going against the ordinance of the exotic animal permit," he said.

Cobb is scheduled to meet again with the council on May 7. He said he has invited all of the council members to his house to see the snakes firsthand, but as of Friday no one had taken him up on the offer. He said he's gotten a mixed reaction from local residents.

"A lot of people are like, 'Oh that's amazing,'" he said. "But then there's that other end of the spectrum where people almost give you that judgmental look of, 'Oh, you're the snake guy.'"