By Juliana A. Torres
Staff Writer

As of next month, Scott Clark’s house in Poinciana, home to Reptile Clan Rescue of Florida, will be one of a limited number of places in the state that can take in Burmese pythons, green anacondas and other snakes identified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as reptiles of concern.

Last week, Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a bill that will keep Florida residents from owning reptiles of concern, with the only exception being those who already have a license to own them. Clark, who’s been a reptile enthusiast for more than two decades, said he thinks current licensed owners might eventually be overburdened by the parameters of the new legislation.

“At some point, everyone who is a ROC licensee is just going to have too many pythons or other reptiles of concern to take care of and I worry it’s going to have the opposite effect that they intended, which is that people will end up releasing them in to the wild,” he said.

Burmese, reticulated, Northern African, Southern African and amethystine pythons, along with green anacondas and Nile monitors are categorized in Florida as reptiles of concern because the species could survive, and even flourish, in the state’s warm climate. According to the FWC website, the reptiles can become an ecological threat, as is the case now with Burmese pythons in the Everglades of South Florida.

Currently the FWC has only 210 reptiles of concern licenses issued, commission spokeswoman Patricia Behnke said.

“Our goal with all this was to make sure these reptiles don’t get released into the wild,” she said. “What we’re doing does not impact commercial entities, except they can’t sell to anyone in Florida.”

Private reptile owners can keep renewing their license for the life of the pet, she said, but they can’t get a new one.

Clark currently keeps five Burmese pythons and one reticulated python, which are all given a microchip to identify them should they ever get loose.

“Curiously enough, I have to put a chip in any of these that are reptiles of concern, but if I was to have a venomous snake license, all I have to do is have a picture of those,” he said. “What they’re worried about is snakes getting loose and living.”

It’s already illegal to release reptiles of concern or let them escape into the wild through negligence, earning offenders a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine. The push to completely restrict the number of owners in Florida, as well as prevent residents from buying the reptiles of concern, gained momentum when a 2-year-old Sumter County girl was killed by a python last year.

Reptile Clan Rescue has been named as an official site in FWC’s amnesty program, through which residents can drop-off any reptiles of concern, no questions asked. There are six other such sites in Osceola County, according to the FWC website. Clark keeps a pair of albino Burmese pythons, a 11-foot female named Belle and a 10-foot male named “Baby,” together in one cage.

“They’re very harmless. They basically are very friendly snakes,” Clark said.

Still, the FWC has strict regulations for keeping reptiles of concern, such as having an emergency plan complete with a diagram of the house in the event of a hurricane or power cut and specific parameters for the enclosures in which the snakes are kept.

“If it’s going to be a reptile of concern, it has to be in a container that has at least half-inch-thick wood and quarter-inch glass, with locks. Like this guy,” Clark said, pointing out an 11-foot reticulated python named Brutus that he said gets aggressive when you invade the territory inside his cage.

“I guarantee you, if you were to stick your hand in there, he’d come right out and see what’s up. Once he’s outside of his enclosure ... he’s no worry anymore at that point. He’s like, ‘Uh-oh, something’s got me. I don’t want to fall.’”

The reticulated took a good bite into Clark earlier this year as he was cleaning out the snake’s enclosure.

“When I moved fast, he moved faster and nailed me. I just jerked and when I did, a spray of blood,” he said, describing the incident. “I’ve learned it’s my fault, not theirs, because I have to learn their instincts and processes. As long as he only bites me, I’m OK. Any reptile of concern that bites anybody other than the licensee, it has to be reported to the FWC.”

Most of the snakes he keeps are “very docile,” he said.

“They don’t have any instincts to fight unless they’re thinking they’re threatened or there’s food involved,” he said, adding later that he makes sure the reptiles stay in their cages. “Snakes are escape artists, so I do everything I can possibly do to make sure they’re locked up, and cages have clamps on them.”

Clark said he had “ lot of worries” about the new law.

“I don’t think there’s quite as many people who release pythons in the wild as they tend to make out,” Clark said. “Personally, I don’t have that much room for any large pythons. (Because) if I can’t find a licensed (home) for them, I just keep taking care of them till I do, or forever, if that’s what it takes.”

Florida residents can still apply for a reptile of concern license up until July 1, at which point the legislation goes into effect.

The others

The Reptile Clan Rescue nonprofit organization cares for more than just reptiles of concern. Clark’s Poinciana front living room is a maze of large reptile cages with glass fronts to show off the host of different snakes he owns, including nine boas and four ball pythons. A back room has been home to several other reptiles, including a black throat monitor, several iguanas, a savannah monitor, two bearded dragons, a glass lizard and a cane toad. A giant sulcata tortoise named Leroy has the run of the backyard after he escaped several times by digging under his concrete enclosure, Clark said.

Clark has lived in Osceola County since 1979 and has worked out of his home for almost 20 years, developing websites. His stay-at-home work allows him to stick around the reptiles and run the reptile nonprofit.

“For me, I’ve been into reptiles since I was 17. It’s one of those things where, they brought a lot of joy into my life; it’s something that I can give back,” the 44-year-old said. “Besides the cost of the food and the electricity, it just takes care. And I don’t mind taking care of them. It’s something I enjoy.”

Nonetheless, the food and electricity to sustain the reptiles does come with a hefty price tag. Each reptile enclosure has its own heat mat that drives up Clark’s electricity bill every month. In fact, during the cold snap this year, he had a bill one month that cost $500.

Clark has a deal worked out with the nearby Publix. The supermarket saves him collard greens and mustard greens, turnips and carrots that they were going to throw out at the end of the day and that are the main part of many of the reptiles’ diet. They also donate bruised and overripe fruit, which the reptiles actually prefer to the retail-ready variety. A reptile supply shop in Melbourne also donates returned reptile supplies.

But for his reptiles that like meat in their diet, maintaining a provision of rats, shipped frozen in bulk from a supplier, not only takes up a lot of Clark’s funds, but also a lot of space in his freezer.

“My wife is pretty forgiving as far as having to reach through the rats to get to the french fries and stuff like that,” he said of Elizabeth, whom he married in October. “She loves reptiles too. She just doesn’t handle them as much.”

Keeping snakes and reptiles started as a hobby for Clark, but then morphed into something more.

“It got to be where (I decided) ‘OK, I’ve got too many snakes to take as a hobby. I’ve got to start finding homes for some of those snakes,’” he said.

The majority of the reptiles kept in his front living room are permanent pets. Most of the snakes and reptiles in the backroom are up for adoption. Clark said he gets calls a couple of times a week from people wanting him to pick up a reptile they’ve either found or no longer want to own.

“I try to keep them for a month, make sure they’re healthy,” he said. “If they’re healthy and parasite-free, then I put them up for adoption.”

Though a boa constrictor could go for as much as $250 in a retail store, Clark only asks for a $50 adoption fee to cover the cost of the animal’s care up to that point.

He also, as a rule, doesn’t take in poisonous snakes.

“I don’t have a desire keeping poisonous reptiles in the house. None of the reptiles I have in the house are capable of killing me or my wife,” he said.

To contact Reptile Clan Rescue of Florida, to either adopt or turn in reptiles, call 407-374-8010, e-mail at scott@ reptilerescue.info or visit its website at www.reptileclan .com. Currently up for adoption are a tegu lizard, two ball pythons, a Hog Island boa constrictor and four other boas.

The nonprofit also accepts donations of reptile habitats, aquariums, lights and food.