Some jerk called Animal Control on me

A little information before getting into my story:

I am in a unique situation where I live at my work. My home is literally attached to my office. We run a hotel, and work 24/7.

Yesterday morning, Animal Control pulls up and asks to speak with the manager (me). I inform them that's me, and they tell me that someone has complained that I had 'over 20 illegal and poisonous snakes' in my possession. Which, I have neither. I told them no, and they were more then welcome to come take a look.

They came into my home and took pictures of everything, and asked me to tell them the type of each snake. They also took pictures of my dog, and checked her tags. They started to raise a stink, saying that all of my snakes need light AND heat. I tried to inform them that's not how its done, which is when they admitted their ignorance to snake care. They told me they would have to 'follow up' with their snake 'expert' and let me know.

They took down some more information, and told me they would follow up with me soon. The big thing I got hit with.... when we moved into this new county, I didn't switch over my dogs tags. 6 bucks and that is taken care of.

Yesterday, I was REALLY angry. I have a 2 yr old daughter, and this is not the type of thing I want to deal with due to some disgruntled ex customer/guest (we're 99% sure who it was, of course, they will not tell us - needless to say these people are dirty crackheads who scam their way though life). Today, I am not so sure how I feel about this. We take excellent care of these animals, and often have to put more money into them to rehab them from a bad situation (I can't help it, I have a soft spot for snakes in need). I feel like a child being scolded for something I didn't do.

I just needed to get this all off my chest to some people who would understand how I feel about reptiles, and snakes in general. Thanks BP.net world for listening to my story.

Geez, that inhales quite deeply. I'm sorry that you had to deal with that, but I suppose it could have been much worse. I dunno...all I can say is take consolation in the fact that the people who reported you are lying a@@clowns (forgive me as it is 6 AM and I have not yet restocked on politeness) and that you did nothing wrong and had very little (6 bucks) come of it. Just a minor, and rather annoying, inconvenience, eh?

Are the crackheads staying at your hotel? I would call the police and report that you smell unusual things coming from the room. I would do this every night.

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Originally Posted by eracer

Are the crackheads staying at your hotel? I would call the police and report that you smell unusual things coming from the room. I would do this every night.

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Lol

The crackheads stayed here for 4 months, but have been gone about 3 weeks now. We couldn't do anything about what was in the room (I tried), but I did get 2 of their dealers arrested.

Well, since it's over and you came away with nothing more than an untransferred dog tag, I'd say you did well. Some animal control officers would have not admitted their ignorance and taken you snakes. Others would have come in with a preconceived notion that that would have cost you all of your snakes and the only way to get them back would have been to hire a lawyer and get them back through the court system. One that would have taken a bunch of time and money.

Just out of curiosity, how did a customer see your snakes if they are in your house and not in your office?

Jim Smith

I know it wasn't a bad ending. Plus, I know we're not doing anything wrong, and I think the animal control officers knew that as well.

People who stay here for an extended period of time just end up learning things about us. I think they were around one time when we rescued a snake we found on the property who had bleach water poured on him (poor lil guy eventually died). My husband and I have decided after this incident to make sure we keep our personal lives much more separate from our work lives. Being in he unique situation we're in though its sometimes tough.

When we took over this place a year ago, it was horrible. It was over run with drug addicts and criminals. Since then, we've cleaned the place out big time, and begun remodeling. We're right on the edge of a city with a huge crack problem though, and it tends to spill over from time to time. There's a fine balance to what we can allow to keep income coming in, and what we won't allow because of potential problems.

Of course, this is a whole different track then the original incident....

Lessons learned : Be more private. Keep taking care of our pets.

wow. im sorry

Sad that this happen to you but it can and sometime does one thing you might have learned from this is to keep your hobby on the down low and only share it with people you trust.

At our previous house I have never have mentioned snakes to any of my neighbors, not that I do anything illegal or nor do I care about what they might have think of me, it's just that I know that all it takes is one unhappy neighbor to cause problems and disrupt your life. Those types of neighbors will use anything that they learned from you or others against you if they feel the were wronged in some ways. (Similar situation in your case except it was with customer)

The only neighbor that actually knew about my snakes found out 2 weeks before we moved out and the funny thing is that since than she got into BP as well.

At our new house same things no one knows about the snakes or the rats.

Also keep in mind that is animal control comes and knock on your door you are in no obligation to let them in.

After reading your post on some of your customers this would be another reason to keep your snake collection a little secretive. A customer, once they know of your snake collection, could find them as currency for buying more drugs. I don't know anything of your location or your office/house layout, but if they can easily be seen from the office, I would move the snakes. Keep them and the knowledge of them to yourselves. I know of people that have been hurt for a lot less.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

After reading your post on some of your customers this would be another reason to keep your snake collection a little secretive. A customer, once they know of your snake collection, could find them as currency for buying more drugs. I don't know anything of your location or your office/house layout, but if they can easily be seen from the office, I would move the snakes. Keep them and the knowledge of them to yourselves. I know of people that have been hurt for a lot less.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

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I didn't even think of this.

Thankfully our living area is separated by not one, but 2 doors. We keep ALL of our doors locked, simply because there is much more traffic around here then a normal apartment. No one can see into our place. I am not sure I could live with that.

All of this has been an excellent learning experience for me.

The owner has decided that she wants to move in a nicer/more expensive direction, so eventually, the 'problem' with the more questionable customers will resolve itself.

I've kept snakes in apartments for the last nine years now, and the only people that ever knew were the owners of the apartment complexes themselves. I never told any of my neighbors.

Everyone here knows there are people in the world that are funny about snakes---they are a creature that elicit a lot of different emotions. For that reason, I keep them in a room that's separated off from the rest of my apartment, that I can keep closed off, if necessary. Even some of my close friends and family don't like them, and, just like I wouldn't want anyone waving a spider around in my face, I'm not going to wave a snake around in theirs.

Same basic concept goes for the neighbors.

Trouble usually knows right where to find me if he needs me, so I tend not to go looking for him lol

I'm glad nothing happened with Animal Control... keep taking great care of those babies! :snake:

Sorry you had to go through that. Even though you were not in possession of any venomous reptiles I would have never let them in.

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

After reading your post on some of your customers this would be another reason to keep your snake collection a little secretive. A customer, once they know of your snake collection, could find them as currency for buying more drugs. I don't know anything of your location or your office/house layout, but if they can easily be seen from the office, I would move the snakes. Keep them and the knowledge of them to yourselves. I know of people that have been hurt for a lot less.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

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I agree 100%

The fact that your home is connected to the hotel you run is kinda sketchy. Especially when you have different people coming in every day. Hell, who knows, someone might realize the amount of money that they could make off of by stealing your collection. :O

Snakes are like guns - misunderstood, and feared by the ignorant.

I don't tell anyone about my guns that I don't completely trust, and (sadly) I'm learning that I have to be careful about who I tell about my snake.

We live in a world where unfounded fear sometimes rules. Sad but true.

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Originally Posted by grits

Sorry you had to go through that. Even though you were not in possession of any venomous reptiles I would have never let them in.

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You've got to pick your battles. You try to play hardball over something that is easily disproved, and the cops can play just as hard and maybe a little more. I think in this instance, if you have nothing to hide you play ball with the cops. After all, the only thing they found was a $6 tag fee.

But what could have happened if she didn't let the cops in? A search warrant, possible TV stations and bad press for the motel. Ultimately, this could have cost her her employment and housing. By playing nice, she got the respect of the cops, nothing was proven and everyone's happy.

Just my opinion!
Jim Smith

I had that happen once. Apparently someone in the neighborhood thought I was keeping OMGZSCARY monster snakes in my house. No trouble from that one, but the inspectors were really funny, because they were a bit afraid of snakes. You should have seen their faces when I warned them some of the females might come flying out of the bin looking for food, so they should be cautious.

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

But what could have happened if she didn't let the cops in? A search warrant, possible TV stations and bad press for the motel. Ultimately, this could have cost her her employment and housing. By playing nice, she got the respect of the cops, nothing was proven and everyone's happy.

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This exactly. Unfortunately, though I enjoy my job most of the time, and the money is fantastic, its really shown me what scum people can be like.

On the other hand, this job has taught me how important it is to work with local law enforcement, and a ton of other skills unrelated to my story. I know that I am doing nothing wrong. I have nothing to hid. I'm not hiding king cobras in my basement or a meth lab in my bathroom.

Its much easier and a lot less friction to work with them.

we dont have issues with animal control per say but for us it's children's services and it was the same for the last 6-7 yrs we lived in california. we actually moved here to get away from it (no we did not run away they knew where we were going, had our address and everything). the problem with this is always...our 6 yr old special needs son. ppl just dont take the time to try to see the situation for what it is.
they just jump to conclusions like
1) we're starving him cuz he eats like its his last meal (an impulse thing connected to his disability) or
2) we're beating him cuz he's covered in bruises (when he falls alot due to the poor muscle tone in his back and legs and again, this is typical of his disability)

over the years we've learned to just simply not trust anyone and in the last year we were in california we actually kicked a couple friends out of our lives because of the drama they had going on in theirs that was spilling over into ours.
we're private people, we value our rights to privacy and we hate drama. we keep only the closest friends we've known for years and now, are slow to trust anyone new, even medical professionals and school personnel.
so i totally get your frustration there. different situations but same issue, i think.

Oh man what a mess!

I also keep my hobby fairly quite because I don't want someone to go to the city and create a stupid law banning ball pythons.

Lesson learned I suppose :rolleyes: Jerks

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I had that happen once. Apparently someone in the neighborhood thought I was keeping OMGZSCARY monster snakes in my house. No trouble from that one, but the inspectors were really funny, because they were a bit afraid of snakes. You should have seen their faces when I warned them some of the females might come flying out of the bin looking for food, so they should be cautious.

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:8: Oh my gosh that's hilarious!!!

At least animal control will respond to snake calls in your area. Here if someone says there are snakes in horrible conditions, or something, animal control blows it off.

Same with rats, and mice.