In Ireland you need a licence to own a dog, but not a snake or crocodile, reports Fionola Meredith
The news that Ireland is slithering with escaped exotic snakes has us all on edge. Apparently, the warm weather is to blame, giving serpents an irresistible feeling of wanderlust, and they're turning up all over the place. In recent weeks, 10 snakes have been apprehended in the Dublin area alone. Just imagine opening up a kitchen cupboard and finding an aggressive 6ft bull snake lurking inside along with the cornflakes and coffee, as a Tallaght woman did last week. It taps into all our primitive fears of untamed nature, red in tooth and claw. In fact, scientific studies suggest that these feelings of terror - ophidiophobia - are shaped by evolution, hard-wired into our brains to improve our chances of survival when confronted by a hissing predator.
The problem is, we don't know how many snakes are out there - caged or escaped - because at present there is no legal requirement to license or register them on either side of the Border. The same is true of other exotic species such as tigers, crocodiles and wolves. It's an issue that the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been campaigning about for years. Pointing out the absurdity of a system that requires you to license your dog, but not your pet tiger, it says that "without a law to regulate the unprecedented number of dangerous species in private hands in Ireland, it's inevitable that someone will be injured or killed".
The fact that the licensing arrangements that do exist are split between different Government departments only adds to the confusion. The Department of Agriculture and Food handles the import licensing of exotic animals such as elephants, rhinos and hippos, mainly processing applications from zoos and circuses. Somewhat arbitrarily, the Department of the Environment, via Dúchas, is in charge of the import of cold-blooded animals, such as snakes, crocodiles, alligators and turtles.
The North in particular has long been notorious for its excess of exotic beasts kept in private homes and rickety outbuildings. Here there have been moves to introduce a Dangerous Wild Animals Act for years, bringing it in to line with the rest of the UK, which introduced similar legislation back in 1976. To the frustration of campaigners, there is still no law in place - but it is on the way. David Wilson, of the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA), says that it will be another three or four months before the Dangerous Wild Animals Act comes into force in the North. Earlier this year, the USPCA recovered 10 baby crocodiles from a vehicle attempting to transport them across the Border. "The only law that guy was breaking was selling without a pet shop licence. People doing this just get a slap on the wrist, nothing more than a £20 fine from a magistrate."
Although there have been occasional scares about big cats on the loose on both sides of the Border - in June 2004, a team of Army marksmen were deployed in Co Monaghan to track down a "puma", and in August 2003, the PSNI spent weeks hunting for a similar beast in Co Antrim - this is becoming less of a problem. "The country isn't brimming with big cats any more," says Wilson. "At one time, it was very much the thing to have a tiger in the shed. Then wolves were the thing to be seen with. It had a paramilitary element - you know, a wolf and a tattoo. Now it's venomous reptiles."
According to Wayne Hull, of City Reptiles pet store in Belfast, there are many shops across the North willing to sell venomous snakes to inexperienced first-time buyers. There's a big demand for iguanas too. But Hull refuses to sell either poisonous snakes or iguanas in his own store. "They aren't suitable as pets. Iguanas start out as eight-inch lizards and grow to over 6ft long. A tank for one would cost about £1,500 (€2,190). It's the same with terrapins. You need an £800 heated tank for them. People end up chucking them in the pond in Belfast's Botanic Gardens, and then the council have to put them down. The other thing people don't realise when they buy a venomous snake is that there isn't any anti-venom treatment here. The nearest place you'll get it is Liverpool."
So it could be a very quick trip across the Irish Sea for any reckless owners of poisonous reptiles in the North. And the rest of us would be well advised to check for sounds of hissing before opening our cupboards this summer.