Leash law ticket perplexes snake lover

Snakes can do plenty of amazing things.

They can open their mouths 150 degrees to eat prey wider than their own bodies. They can strike after losing their heads. At least five species can fly.

There is one thing no snake can do, however, even with the greatest effort: Run.

Which is why snake owner Jerry Kimball was shocked to find himself holding a $190 ticket for “animals running at large” on April 1, the day he allowed his four-month old Fire Bee Ball Python to take a bathroom break in the grass at Falls Park.

“It was April Fool’s Day, so I thought he was playing a joke,” Kimball said. “They’re not fast creatures. They’re not going to run away.”

Kimball wasn't even particularly upset about the ticket. He was bothered by the Animal Control Officer's suggestion that he put a leash on his snake.

“He was literally asking me to put a rope around my snake,” said Kimball, who posted a photo of his ticket on Facebook in disgust. “I was like ‘dude, no.’ I was dumbfounded.”

The ticket was less about running and more about "at large," said Animal Control Supervisor Julie DeJong.

Despite the verb used in the city ordinance's title, DeJong said, “animals running at large” applies to all pets in public: Great or small, warm-blooded or cold, 8-legged, 4-legged or legless.

“If it’s in public and it’s not on a leash, it’s at large. The ordinance doesn’t really distinguish between animals,” DeJong said.

“At large” is defined as “not under the control of the owner, possessor, keeper, agent, servant, or a member of his or her immediate family by a leash.” If not on a leash, it must be “chained, restrained, enclosed, or confined in a manner preventing it from leaving the premises.”

The city issued 253 citations for animals running at large in 2016. Most would have been for dogs, but the ordinance doesn’t make a distinction.

DeJong declined to discuss the words exchanged between Kimball and the officer he met on Saturday, which came after a call from a woman who’d noticed Kimball’s largest snake, a thick 4-year-old boa constrictor named Lucy.

“I wasn’t there to hear the conversation,” DeJong said.

She did say that said Animal Control does not expect snake owners to leash their pets in public. They’re welcome in public, but should be held or kept in a container.

She also said snake lovers should be cognizant and sensitive to the aversion many feel toward the creatures. Non-venomous snakes are legal to own, but that doesn’t mean all park visitors will take in a python as a welcome sight.

“Some people are very scared of snakes, too, so that’s something they need to take into consideration,” DeJong said.

That’s actually the reason Kimball was at the park in the first place. The North Carolina native and lifelong snake enthusiast considers it a mission to ally the public’s fear of his preferred pet.

“That’s my purpose in life: To let people know that snakes aren’t killers,” Kimball said. “What better way to give back than to help people understand these misunderstood creatures.”

His own love of snakes grew out of an attempt to conquer fear. A cottonmouth snake bit him when he was a child.

“It was one of those things like riding a bike: You fall off, you want to get back on and try again,” Kimball said.

He got interested early, got an albino Burmese python from his father as a birthday present at age 7, and has been an evangelist for the animals ever since.

The impetus for the leash law ticket on April 1 was what Kimball calls an “educational meet and greet,' which amounts to being present in public with snakes and welcoming the curious. He’s a fairly regular fixture at city parks in the warmer months, appearing alongside his fiancé and fellow snake appreciators.

“In the summer, it’s every weekend,” said Kimball’s fiancé, Jennifer Loguidice.

Kimball's not the only snake lover who frequents public spaces.

Jesse Rierson, vice president of a reptile appreciation nonprofit called the Sioux Falls Herpetological Society, goes to Sertoma Park once or twice a week in the summer to let kids meet snakes. The group also visits Pet Smart, day cares, schools and other public events.

Once or twice a summer, Animal Control comes around after a report from a park visitor. Only once was he asked to pick up a nearby snake, which he did until the complaining party left the park.

“I’ve been told by every other officer that it was okay for me to have them in the grass as long as they’re right next to me.” Rierson said.

The 7-year-old herpetological society has non-profit status and recently purchased a $1 million liability insurance policy - Kimball is a friend but not a member - but Rierson said Kimball was essentially doing the same thing his group does and ought to have the same rights

“I don’t think this is what the City Council had in mind when they wrote the leash law,” Rierson said.

Rierson said it’s not uncommon for reptile owners to get some leeway in animal control policies.

DeJong noted that city ordinance bars the keeping of more than four animals. The wording of the ordinance exempts fish and birds, but includes everything else: “dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, mice, ferrets, birds other than fowl, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, and species that a reasonable person would consider a pet”

“Snakes fall under the same restrictions as cats and dogs,” DeJong said.

In practice, the four animal limit normally doesn't becomes an enforcement matter for reptile owners (or for those who might own dogs, cats and hamsters, for that matter). Both Rierson and Kimball keep more than four reptiles, and both say they’ve been visited and not ticketed by animal control in their homes.

“There’s a huge difference between four St. Bernards and four ball pythons,” Rierson said.

Kimball said he hopes to represent himself and fight his leash law ticket in court.