Sounds to me like they shouldn't be pushing their luck if they are already breaking the law over pet limits. It's one thing imo to have an educational reptile show planned, it's kind of a different story to show up at a local park with snakes. I wouldn't want my animals loose around people possibly deathly afraid of them and the possibility of random dogs/cats/etc running around, seems risky and dumb. There's better ways to approach the issues.
On the subject of snake leashes though-my sister works at a school and I've brought a snake in before, they talk a lot about my animals apparently and there's a boy who takes the scrap paper pieces, tapes the ends together and tells her to give them to me as "snake collars". I imagine I could get him building leashes too if there's a market.