After the exotic animal escape in Zanesville, Ohio, during summer 2011, exotic pet owners have to go through a procedure to keep their beloved pets.
When Dave Sagan ends his workday at the Hocking College Woods Nature Center, he goes home to his 11 snakes — four of which are more than 12 feet long. As of 2014, Sagan’s ownership of the snakes is restricted by state law.
Ohio legislators have tightened rules and regulations for owning bizarre, exotic or potentially dangerous animals to keep the public safe. Those laws moved through the Statehouse when 50 exotic animals, including lions, tigers and bears, escaped from a preserve in Zanesville in 2011.
Among the new rules, snakes measuring 12 feet in length or longer, are restricted as of Jan. 1, 2014.
Sagan’s restricted snakes, which live in his Nelsonville home, include three Burmese pythons and one reticulated python.
Anyone who had a restricted snake before Jan. 1, 2014, or wanted to obtain a restricted snake after that date had to complete various tasks, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
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Sagan, who has been raising snakes for more than 25 years, had to submit a plan of action to the Athens County Sheriff’s Office in the event that his snakes escaped, as well as a detailed description of each of his snakes, proof that he had more than two years of experience with restricted snakes and proof that he obtained liability insurance.
Sagan said the plan of action includes calling the sheriff’s office and the Nelsonville Police Department, notifying his neighbors and filling the hole from which the snake escaped.
“The likelihood that my animals are going to escape is very, very remote,” Sagan said.
Before the revised legislation, law enforcement agencies around Athens had multiple exotic animal calls.
Athens County Sheriff Rodney Smith recounted a day about 10 years ago, when he was working with the sheriff’s office as a deputy, when a stripper’s boa constrictor — which was used as a prop for shows — escaped from her house. The sheriff’s office received a call to help recapture the reptile.
“It would have been nice to have someone like (Sagan) around,” Smith said.
Sheriff’s office officials eventually got a snake expert on the scene and captured the snake in a 55-gallon drum.
Smith said the sheriff’s office has also handled other reports of escaped animals, including an escaped camel sitting in the middle of a county road.
“I think it was just scared,” Smith said.
Sagan has assisted local law enforcement when it gets calls about snakes.
“I get involved when a warrant is being searched and a snake is a peripheral issue,” Sagan said.
Late last fall, he got called to remove what officers thought was a copperhead from a local residence.
When Sagan arrived, he informed deputies that it was a wooden carving of a snake that looked like a copperhead.
Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said his department often receives calls about escaped animals.
“We see all kinds of them,” Pyle said.
One year, a caiman — a close relative to the alligator — was released from its bathtub habitat into Athens.
“We had to go attack that,” Pyle said.
Pyle said the department has been able to handle the escapees without further mishap.
“We’ve had snakes, boa constrictors, but fortunately nobody I know of has ever been hurt,” Pyle said.
Through his vast reptile network and colleagues, Sagan has rescued snakes that were unwanted pets. Other snakes have been rescued from more extreme situations. His nearly 19-feet Burmese python, Chongo, became state property after he was found during a drug raid. Chongo’s story made it to Sagan, prompting the rescue.
“The snakes found me instead of me going out looking for them,” Sagan said.
