Weekend animal show draws interest

Dahlila is a mass of muscle wider than Chris Phillips' arms and longer than he is tall.

Yet the trim 20-year-old from South Hill, Va., wore a smug grin as the red-tailed boa constrictor he had just bought for $200 Sunday at the Carolina Reptile and Exotic Animal Show wound her way across his neck.

"I just love big snakes," said Phillips, his checkered baseball cap cocked sideways. "It's the thickness, the power, the strength."

Dahlila and other reptiles drew roughly 8,000 people to the weekend event at the N.C. State Fairgrounds. They've also drawn the attention of state legislators lately.

Some species of snakes narrowly escaped being included in a controversial effort last year to ban the ownership of animals deemed "inherently dangerous." Backed by a California animal rights group, the bill has been stymied in the legislature after drawing the ire of small zoo owners, livestock farmers, outspoken reptile owners and others for including too many animals.

A less restrictive bill is expected to hit the General Assembly in January, this time with support from serious reptile enthusiasts. Focused on snakes and other reptiles, it would require owners of certain venomous or very large snakes to register with local law enforcement and animal control officers. It would also make proper care of reptiles a law, so that their mistreatment could result in criminal charges, said Andrew Wyatt, president of the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers.

Sen. Ed Jones, a Democrat from Halifax, sponsored the dangerous animal bill and now hopes to get the snake bill passed.

"If we're not going to keep these animals out, we at least need to know where they are," Jones said in an interview last week.

Veteran snake breeders at the event Sunday weren't surprised by legislators' sudden interest in their slithery affairs.

In his 12 years breeding reptiles, Ben Siegel has seen several waves of restrictions on them go through in various states.

Most recently, his home state of Florida started requiring owners of some snakes to pay a $100 fee and implant their animals with a microchip for tracking them. That move was prompted by reports of Burmese and other pythons, suspected of being abandoned pets, turning up in the Everglades, where they squeeze out other species.

Other laws, including the North Carolina bill, are driven by fears for public safety.

"It's crazy," Siegel said. "If you can show me a handful of deaths caused by captive snakes, I would be surprised."

Wyatt's group was formed to protect snake owners from the proposed ban in North Carolina. He said snakes are often singled out for restrictions not because they're dangerous, but because they're less sympathetic than other pets.

"People think of reptiles as creepy, crawly creatures out of nightmares," Wyatt said. "It's very easy to create a panic."

Still, a range of reptilian attributes lured enthusiasts at the event Sunday. Their raw, sinewy strength. Their odd, cold-blooded personalities. Their myriad sizes and colors.

"It's like living art," said Larry Rouch of Pender County, who used to raise and sell reptiles but was at the show Sunday to browse. "If you can think of a color, then there's a snake to match it."

They have more personality than a fish, and they look cooler draped across your arms than a house cat. And snakes go days without eating -- great for weekend out-of-town jaunts, said Liz Lamb, 37, a teacher from Charlotte.

Lamb, at the fairgrounds buying her third snake, hopes that regulating the larger snakes would be a good deterrent for people who might not think hard enough before buying a snake that could grow to 20 feet long.

"It might help slow down people who say, 'Look at that cute little Burmese python,' " she said.