Local snake fancier wages ongoing battle to educate public, Onalaska officials about

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Local snake fancier wages ongoing battle to educate public, Onalaska officials about reptiles
By PAUL SLOTH/Staff writer

Mike Bechtel has a thing about snakes. He loves them. In fact, he's so interested in snakes that besides keeping them as pets, he also raises them.

Bechtel, who lives with his wife and two daughters in Onalaska, is also trying to raise awareness about keeping snakes and other reptiles as pets, in an attempt to educate the public about these animals.

Last week, Bechtel asked the city's Administrative and Judiciary Committee to consider relaxing the city's ordinance regulating animals, specifically reptiles.

"I have no problem with the ordinance, I just want to make sure we know what we're talking about when we get into this," Bechtel said.

The ordinance prohibits owning any constrictor snake longer than 6 feet, along with 25 other types of animals, including bears, monkeys and hippopotami.

The ordinance is similar to those drafted by many communities throughout the state, Bechtel said. In fact, for the most part it is a boiler plate ordinance borrowed from the state statutes.

But that's not why he asked the city to reconsider the ordinance.

A little known fact

Boa constrictors often get lumped into the list of snakes that can be problematic - anacondas, rock pythons and reticulated pythons - mainly because of their size, he said.

The most common snakes kept by reptile owners are the many and varied constrictor species; boas, pythons, rat and milk snakes; and the racer, gopher and garter species.
Mike Bechtel helps his 3-year-old daughter, Abby, as she holds a Hogg Island Boa. Both of Bechtel’s daughters are learning, like he did, to care for animals from an early age.
Photo by Paul Sloth
The care and dietary requirements for these types of snakes vary considerably. Furthermore, some of the same species, notably the boa constrictors and pythons, can reach very large sizes in captivity.

"A lot of people don't realize that snakes grow depending on how well they're fed," Bechtel said.

Bechtel has been involved with exotic animals since he was a young man. Growing up on a farm in Waukon, Iowa, Bechtel used to supply exotic animals and farm animals to Myrick Park in La Crosse.

He wants to make sure that local ordinances make it possible for people to own reptiles and take care of them responsibly. He doesn't want to see a situation where people might buy a 6-foot snake locally and see it grow longer than the law allows and then not know what to do with it.

"That's one of the big things about the herp society," Bechtel said, making note of the newly formed Coulee Region Herpetological Society. "People now have a place they can call."

Bechtel, who moved to Onalaska two years ago from Iowa, teaches science at Central High School in La Crosse as well as at Western Wisconsin Technical College. He is an active member of the Coulee Region Herpetological Society, a group that formed in response to La Crosse County's attempt to pass an exotic animal ordinance.

Bechtel represented the group before the La Crosse County Board and addressed some of the board's worries, such as disease and animal care.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 3 percent of U.S. households own at least one reptile - which includes lizards, snakes and turtles. The statistic is accompanied by a warning about the one disease reptiles can carry: salmonella.

It's a statistic that many reptile owners, including Bechtel, think instills an unwarranted fear in people. The CDC lists 11 diseases that cats carry and 13 diseases that birds carry.

The county did not succeed in passing its proposed exotic animal ordinance, which many area animal owners considered restrictive and uninformed.

While the exact number of reptiles owned as pets is not known, it is clear that ownership of reptiles is on the rise, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

It is estimated that 1.5 million to 2.5 million U.S. households owned one or more reptiles in 1996, with snakes and turtles being the most frequently owned type of reptile.

Most pet reptiles and amphibians are purchased from pet stores or pet superstores, with the average price ranging from $15 for frogs to $91 for snakes in 1998. Owners spent an average of $67 to $451 in a year for the feeding and care of their animals, depending on the species owned.

When he learned of Onalaska's ordinance Bechtel said the first thing he did was go around to see what species of snake were available at local pet stores. Two stores in the city sell Columbian red tail boas, a snake that can grow up to 10 feet long, well beyond the 6-foot limit stated in the ordinance.

Jeff Zilliox, who manages Marineland Pet Center in Onalaska, sees a problem with ordinances like Onalaska's, which he considers too vague and often difficult to enforce.

"I'm against any generalization laws," Zilliox said. "They're banning snakes that make perfectly good pets."

Zilliox said the store has been selling reptiles since the early 1970s.

Local regulation of reptiles varies, but often falls under larger ordinances regulating a much wider variety of exotic animals, similar to Onalaska's.

The city could have a new, more relaxed ordinance in the near future.

"Our committee did not believe there was an issue," said Alderman Diane Oldani Wulf, who chairs the Administrative Committee. "We did not see a reason why we couldn't relax the ordinance."

During the past two decades, there has been an upsurge in the popularity of reptiles as pets. Reptiles are currently the fastest growing segment of the pet trade, according to the Wisconsin Herpetological Society. The group, a nonprofit organization of amateur and professional herpetologists dedicated to the conservation of reptiles and amphibians (collectively referred to as herptiles or herps) formed in 1973.

The increased availability of reptiles and other exotic species has given rise to some unfortunate situations. As with any issue, the actions of a few cast a negative image on the many responsible reptile owners. Negative publicity from incidents - such as a recent cobra bite in Waukesha County earlier this month - often lead communities to draft ordinances that ban exotic animals without regard to the species.

"I want to come in here with the idea of educating people and trying to work something out," Bechtel said. "I'm going to try and see if we have any options."