City OKs Ordinance Affecting Sellers, Owners of Exotic Pets

The Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance Wednesday that calls for owners of exotic animals to tell their next-door neighbors about pets like boa constrictors and for pet shop owners to notify customers that such animals must be registered with the city’s Department of Animal Regulation.

The ordinance, introduced by Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley, was spurred by two highly publicized snake attacks in Southern California.

In one incident last August, a West Hills woman witnessed her pet Chihuahua being devoured by a 7 1/2-foot boa constrictor that had escaped from its owner’s home.

The woman, Jackie Torgerson, 76, applauded the council’s approval of the ordinance Wednesday and was especially pleased about the neighbor notification requirement, she said.

“I would have been checking my yard regularly,” Torgerson said.

Another incident last August involved a 10-year-old Anaheim boy, Tanner Murabito, who went to give his pet python a bowl of water, but was trapped when the 12-foot snake latched onto his hand and coiled tightly around his arm. The boy escaped with minor injuries after paramedics decapitated the snake.

Ali Sar, a spokesman for Bernson, said a previous draft of the new ordinance, recommended to the City Council by the Animal Regulation Commission last week, lacked the stipulation that exotic pet owners inform their immediate neighbors about exotic pets. The City Council added the measure Wednesday before approving the measure, Sar said.

Current city law requires the owners of all “exotic, dangerous or nondomestic animals or reptiles” to apply to Animal Regulation for permits.

Sar said the new ordinance does not specify a penalty for violators. Noncompliance would be considered a misdemeanor, but details are pending from animal regulation officials, he said.

“If you have a little dog or a cat or a bird or whatever,” Sar said, “you should be aware of [a snake next door].”