{"id":1902,"date":"2011-12-01T09:31:26","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T14:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2011-12-01T09:31:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T14:31:26","slug":"kennett-square-resident-bitten-by-pet-rattlesnake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Square resident bitten by pet rattlesnake"},"content":{"rendered":"

After large cache of exotic animals discovered, borough officials may move to regulate ownership<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By P.J. D\u2019Annunzio, <\/strong>Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

After a borough man was biten by his pet rattlesnake, similar to this animal pictured, borough officials are readying an ordinance controlling the number and kind of exotic animals that can be kept as pets.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 After a borough man was bitten by a poisonous snake and it was discovered he had a virtual zoo of exotic reptiles in his apartment, a fact unknown to his landlord or borough authorities, changes could be coming to regulate ownership of such pets.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 22,\u00a0the man\u00a0(whose name has not been\u00a0disclosed) was bitten on the hand by a rattlesnake he kept as a pet in his\u00a0apartment on the 100 block of West State Street.\u00a0<\/span>He was immediately\u00a0transported to Einstein Medical Center for treatment of the venomous snake bite. Physicians expect he will make a full recovery.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Unknown to the owner of the building or Borough Officials, the victim was in possession of numerous exotic pets.\u00a0When Kennett Police entered the residence, they promptly discovered the man\u2019s collection, which included eight snakes, four of which were venomous, a 14-foot constricting\u00a0python,\u00a0three non-venomous snakes,\u00a0two monitor lizards, and a small alligator. <\/span>Police were able to\u00a0clear the building of the animals with the assistance of herpetologists from the Philadelphia area.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The poisonous animals have been taken to the Philadelphia Zoo. Another subject removed the remaining animals\u00a0and transported them to a local reptile shelter” said investigating officer Corporal Richard Bell. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though the man was legally entitled to possess the animals via permit from The\u00a0Pennsylvania\u00a0Wildlife Commission, the incident has sparked\u00a0a discussion over the wisdom\u00a0and the legality of keeping exotic\u2014and potentially dangerous\u2014pets in domestic settings. Borough Officials are currently in the process of drafting an ordinance the would prohibit the ownership of exotic animals within Kennett Square’s limits.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our concern was that there were more poisonous snakes in a location we were unaware of. People are allowed to have whatever they’re legally entitled to, but if one of those snakes had escaped we’d be facing a serious problem,” Bell said,\u00a0referencing the potential danger of an escaped, venomous reptile in Kennett Square.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kennett Square Borough manager Brant Kucera called the ownership dangerous animals within Borough limits “an unacceptable risk” and claimed that officials should have a finalized ordinance regarding exotic animal ownership by January or shortly thereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After large cache of exotic animals discovered, borough officials may move to regulate ownership By P.J. D\u2019Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 After a borough man was bitten by a poisonous snake and it was discovered he had a virtual zoo of exotic reptiles in his apartment, a fact unknown to his landlord or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[16,309,308],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-kennett-square","tag-ordinances","tag-snakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}