How’d you like to live next door to an alligator? Apparently it happens far north of the bayou.
Brandon Boyles of Palmyra pled guilty last week to keeping exotic animals in violation of a city ordinance. He was arrested Jan. 30, and his menagerie of pets removed from his home, after an anonymous call to the Palmyra Police Department tip line, Chief Eddie Bogue said in a release.
During the course of the investigation, in which the Missouri Department of Conservation and the St. Louis Zoo assisted, more than 30 exotic animals were discovered in Boyles’ home, Bogue said. They included several species of poisonous snakes and constrictor snakes (makes you hope the ophidiophobic Indiana Jones wasn’t his neighbor), as well as caimans, alligators, scorpions and spiders.
I suppose it’s a good thing he wasn’t keeping wild cats, which would be much harder-pressed for space, but a private home in town isn’t a safe place to keep our reptile and arachnid friends — for humans’ or animals’ sake. It’s doubly problematic when city law prohibits their being kept in town.
Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like anyone was injured by any of the animals. With any luck, they’re on their way to a new home — perhaps shoring up the St. Louis Zoo’s offerings.
In the meantime, if you really want to channel Dr. Dolittle, don’t do it in Palmyra. Do it in unincorporated Marion County, where you only need to register your exotic animals with the sheriff and you’re in business.
If no one was injured … um why was he being investigated? Just wondering… Personally I think you should be able to have any pet that you can purchase legally… Registration might be a good idea, yes but banning them? (BTW now I want to watch the original dr doolittle…LOL)