Ball pythons, not poultry: Escaped snake photographed in Beamsville allowed under Hamilton pet bylaw

Why did the ball python cross the road in Beamsville? Possibly because it escaped an unsecured enclosure, said an Ontario snake breeder.

Niagara police posted a warning Monday asking residents not to approach a ball python, photographed in the town just east of Hamilton.

Mark Mandic, a ball python breeder and owner of Markus Jayne Ball Pythons, said police were right to ask people not to approach the snake.

Most people don't know how to handle the snake species he describes as docile and harmless.

You can say the same thing for cats or dogs out in public," Mandic said.

In Hamilton, pet owners are allowed to own non-venomous snakes up to three metres. And unlike dogs, small snakes don't require a permit to own.

Mandic says ball pythons don't grow close to three metres. The snakes grow to a maximum of about 1.8 metres, he says, but on average, males grow to about one metre and females grow to about 1.4 metres.

Niagara SPCA and Humane Society executive director, John Greer, estimated the snake photographed in town Sunday is only about 45 centimetres long.

Any snake that could grow longer than two metres - for example a 6.5-metre reticulated python - falls under Hamilton's extensive prohibited animals list in the city's pet bylaw.

The bylaws lists 16 orders of animals - such as primates, crocodylia (alligators) and proboscidea (elephants and hippopotamuses) - that are banned or restricted from being kept as pets, with some notable exceptions.

• Backyard chickens and a variety of other farm animals, mammal and water fowl, are only allowed in areas with proper farm zoning (excluding licensed pot-bellied pigs);

• you can't keep any venomous animals, except for three tarantula species: Chilean rose, Mexican red-knee and pinktoe;

• non-venemous lizards are allowed, but only those that don't grow over two metres long;

• you cannot keep cougars or raccoons and other large mammalian carnivores except for dogs, cats and ferrets;

• rodents that grow to be larger than 1,500 grams are not pets;

• marsupials are banned, except for sugar gliders;

• raptors are banned, unless you have a provincial falconry permit.

For people interested in owning a ball python, Mandic's first piece of advice is do your research.

Ball pythons require special equipment and attention.

The biggest problem, Mandic says, is people who want to put the snake in an aquarium and don't know how.

The snakes are all muscle," and can easily push out of an unsecured aquarium, Mandic says.

Fish aquariums are for fish."

Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com