Search Exotic Incidents Database

Two unidentified men stole a sulcata tortoise, a leatherback bearded dragon, a lemon blast python, and a Colombian red tail boa constrictor from the Living Things Pet Store.

Department of Homeland Security and U.S. customs agents intercepted a box from the Philippines that contained venomous pit vipers, several of which had died. Agents then went to the home of the person to whom the box was address and discovered additional snakes. There is an ongoing investigation, and it is believed the snakes were meant as personal pets and not to be sold.

A zebra with a pink harness was seen in a parked minivan outside an Athens Texas Roadhouse. A later social media post by the owner indicated that she was traveling to Oklahoma with the zebra (named Zelda), along with a crate of miniature kangaroos. She was pulled over and ticketed for traveling with the exotic animals.

A man named Gustave David Salazar was charged with the illegal purchase or sales of reptiles and wildlife and related counts following an 18-month undercover investigation of his timber rattlesnake transactions by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

Salazar acknowledged that some of the rattlesnakes were used for “food and snake liquor.”

Severely abused pythons and leopard geckos were removed from a home and brought to the Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital. They were kept in awful conditions, in feces and covered with snake mites.

Some of the reptiles were already dead and some died at the hospital. Out of four leopard geckos, and two have survived, and out of five snakes, three have survived.

A 3-foot-tall pet kangaroo escaped his home and wandered around the city. Police captured the animal and transferred it to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Two men stole a 3-foot alligator from a tank containing four alligators at a Fudpuckers restaurant.

Willow, a 5-year-old cheetah who gave birth to five cubs on March 8, died. She did not recover from the C-section.

A former California exotic pet dealer named Hiroshi Motohashi let a 13-foot python loose in a sushi restaurant after managers kicked him out for bringing another, smaller snake to dinner.

The snake tried to slither away but got stuck in a cabinet near the cash register. Animal control officers freed it and removed it.

Motohashi was arrested for making criminal threats. Officials are caring for both of his snakes — the yellow python and the smaller serpent — until he can show proof of ownership and proper pet permits.

A man was bitten by his pet rattlesnake. He was taken to the hospital, and the snake was transferred to an animal rescue center. Rattlesnakes are illegal to own without a permit in Philadelphia.