I don't know why they do it, but it happens all the time. I have a Bro who works animal control down in Dade County. You'd be suprised what they get called out to pick up from owners. One of my favorite stories was about the girl who thought it would be cool to keep a couple of Eastern Diamondbacks in her living room...then realized that she would eventually need to clean their cage, and decided she wasn't such an snake lover after all.
Wow. That is insane. Sometimes I wonder what goes through the heads of these types of people.