Exotic animal ownership laws

A local reptile zoo may be getting some of its exotic animals back after it was told it had to get rid of them. Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo is located on Barton Street near Gage Avenue, just around the corner from the new Pan Am stadium.

But Tuesday all the action took place at Hamiton city hall. After 3 hours of discussion it looks like Little Ray’s Repile Zoo founder Paul Goulet may get what he wants. He still needs accreditation and city council still needs to ratify the amendments to the responsible animal ownership by-law

It was last December when Goulet had to relocate 32 reptiles including an anaconda and crocodiles because of the ban that was implemented by the city of Hamilton. Little Ray’s brings snakes, crocodiles and other reptiles out into the public to show to children at schools, daycares and corporate events. Goulet says they do it to educate and promote conservation. But some animal groups raised their concerns about Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo practises today. They’re worried about children interacting with animals that may bite, attack or spread diseases like salmonella or ecoli.

Liz White is with the Animal Alliance of Canada: “One of the videos is somebody wrapping one of the larger pythons around this child. And that to me seems very, very, very risky. There may not be anything that happens, but if that snake should start to constrict with a tiny child like that, I think there could be an awful lot of damage before they could even get that snake off.”

Paul Goulet is founder of Little Ray’s: “A big part of our programming is interactive and educational. It’s very family friendly programming. We have a 4,500 sq. Ft. Facility and the average visit there is two — two and a half hours because our staff are engaging and we are teaching people and interacting with people. So from our standpoint, we can interact with people positively and protectively with corn snakes and smaller animals. But people are coming to a reptile zoo. They want to see an aligator, they want to see a larger python.”

Greg Tarry is with Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums: Safety is very important. But we also look at veterinary care, we look at education, conservation. We look at public safety, staff safety. We look at the whole area of governance to make sure that the people who are making the decisions are qualified and competent to do that.

Now this was all prompted by what happened in New Brunswick last summer. Two boys were killed by an African Rock python that escaped the pet store underneath their apartment. They were killed while they slept. Now some of the amendments to this new by-law include that the property that houses exotic animals shouldn’t share walls. Heating or cooling systems should not be shared between the facility or the tenants. The place should have proper accreditation — which Little Ray’s is seeking and could get from CAZA in September. The facility should also expected to be randomly inspected by the city because of health and safety reasons.