Search Exotic Incidents Database

Police responding a call concerning a resident’s self-inflicted gunshot wound found a 6-1/2-ft-long alligator in the basement. The reptile was taken to the Carthage Humane Society until a suitable home could be found.

Prada, a 4-year-old monkey, escaped from his possessor’s Coconut Palms apartment. He was recaptured by Animal Control officials and turned over to Back to Nature Sanctuary, where he was held until given to Florida Fish and Wildlife.

Department of Fish and Wildlife officials seized seven rattlesnakes, a gabon viper, a king cobra, an iguana, two monitor lizards, two alligators, a boa constrictor, and a python. The Possessor was not at home as he was having two fingers amputated at a local hospital as the result of snakebite. He faced several charges in connection with the seized reptiles.

Judy Berens, owner of the Panther Ridge Conservation Center, was bit by 2 of her cheetahs while giving a presentation for a group of people. According to medical staff that treated her, she acquired over 40 puncture wounds.

An arrest warrant was issued for a Cutten man facing four felony counts of animal cruelty in connection with the more than a hundred animals found in and around his home in mid-January. Thirty-five dead animals including a dog, a ferret, chickens, large snakes, lizards, fish, and scorpions were found at his property.

Denver Animal Control officers confiscated six marmosets from a home of a former Florida resident, who claimed she didn’t know the primates were illegal in Colorado. Animal Control officials attempted to relocate the marmosets.

A Scott County chiropractor was given 60 days to place the exotic animals in his zoo before going to federal prison on fraud charges. Snowflake Farm was home to leopards, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, and wildebeests.

The owner of Horseshoe Creek Wildlife closed his operation and had until September 2008 to place the animals in other facilities. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission cited the owner more than 40 times since 1993. A recent inspection showed that the animals were living in unsafe conditions.

Two Elk county residents had nearly 60 animals removed from their property the previous week and were facing 10 counts of animal cruelty.

Three of the zebras who had previously escaped in June 2007 from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus broke free from their temporary tour enclosure in Baltimore, MD. The animals wandered briefly into traffic lanes before being corralled and returned to the sidewalk. A circus veterinary technician described it as “a scary moment.”