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Saturday, August 25, 2001

By Jonathan D. Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

When Scott Salac's snakes get hungry, he goes to the kitchen freezer for some one-stop shopping.

The menu isn't fancy: Rats on the rocks.

"I just put 'em in my sink and thaw 'em out with hot water," Salac said.

Icky? Depends who you ask. Snakes? Some people couldn't even get past the rats.

But Salac, of Lawrenceville, is a different breed. He's ecstatic over the exotic -- in his case, a Burmese python and a Peruvian redtail boa constrictor.

	Scott Salac, of Lawrenceville, holds Jake, a 3-year-old, 7-foot albino Burmese python, one of several exotic pets he owns. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

"I like 'em because of the fascination about how they can eat such a large prey. I like how big they get," said Salac, who shares his house with his parents, the two snakes, two giant centipedes and a Florida bog scorpion. "Twenty feet, 500, 600 pounds. That's pretty amazing."

As house pets go, Fluffy and Rover aren't passe by any means. But by the reckoning of at least one local exotic animal veterinarian, Dr. Edward Bennett of All Pet Animal Hospital in Hampton, ownership of offbeat pets is on the rise.

"They are part of the family," Bennett said.

The danger of such pets became evident this week. Eight-year-old Amber Mountain of Irwin died last night at Children's Hospital because her family's 10-foot python wrapped itself around her neck on Wednesday, according to what her mother told police. Police continue to investigate.

News of the snake attack whipped up a media frenzy that took its toll on Dolly Ellerbrock, president of the Pittsburgh Herpetological Society, home to 120 lovers of reptiles and amphibians.

"I've been under siege for three days," explained Ellerbrock, who has been trying to put a positive spin on snakes, their scaly, slimy cousins, and the people who own them. "We're not weird. We just have a common interest."

Look hard enough and in Western Pennsylvania you will find snakes, iguanas, pot-bellied pigs, chinchillas, lizards, monkeys, bearded dragons, ferrets, Amazon parrots, alligators, tarantulas and even a leopard cub. They're not under rocks or hanging from trees; they're in houses and apartments and back yards.

"If you can imagine what it is, it's out there," said Jason Sappe, 30, a police officer in Buffalo, Butler County, who keeps a 5-foot alligator in his outdoor pool. "Your neighbor probably has stuff. It's just that you don't see it all the time. They're not walking their alligator or taking their rattler out for a jog."

Exotic animal enthusiasts might own offbeat pets, but they'll tell you that they're not necessarily offbeat themselves. They come from all walks of life. Sappe believes animals reflect the people who buy them, although he wasn't sure what facet of his personality was reflected by his alligator. Machismo? He thinks not.

"I don't know any other reptile owners like me, and I don't know anybody I work with who owns reptiles," Sappe said. "I know plenty of macho-ish guys, and they wouldn't have anything to do with a reptile."

Some potential pet owners slavishly research animals before buying them; others are completely clueless and get in way over their heads. Over time they discover that an adorable baby alligator or a foot-long snake will grow -- and grow and grow and grow. That can lead to animals being abandoned and considered disposable.

Last year, the Pittsburgh Herpetological Society received more than 500 calls from people who wanted to get rid of their iguanas. Excuses run the gamut: People are moving; their children are leaving for college; the iguana has grown too large.

"They see this cute little animal, and they buy it, and they don't think about what it's going to do when it gets larger, and they don't think about what it's going to do to their fingers on the way home," Ellerbrock said.

Fans of reptiles and amphibians acknowledge that their beloved monitor lizard or corn snake isn't going to fetch the paper, lick their face or snuggle at the foot of the bed. They're not that kind of pet. They can be beautiful, colorful and fascinating to watch, particularly while devouring crickets or rodents or, in the case of Sappe's alligator, chicken from Giant Eagle. But cuddly? Not really.

"Who says so?" Ellerbrock countered.

Some of the stories about the link between man and cold-blooded beast are surprising. There are tales of iguanas that greet their owners at the door, for instance, and snakes that like being petted.

"We have one gentleman who sits with a tortoise and watches TV, and he uses a chintz tablecloth," Ellerbrock said. The tortoise weighs about 40 pounds; the tablecloth is in case it makes a mess.

Tortoises aren't the only ones intrigued by appliances. Ellerbrock once had an iguana that watched TV -- of all things, the soap opera "The Guiding Light." There are even stories of iguanas trying to answer ringing phones.

"They run over to the phone and try to push the buttons or knock the receiver off," Ellerbrock said.

No matter how domesticated exotic wildlife gets, though, experts take pains to remind pet owners that the animals are still wild, whether mammal, reptile, amphibian or insect. That wild side is what some find so fascinating, including Salac, who gets a hoot out of admiring his scorpion's dinner manners.

"I think it's kind of neat watching them," Salac said. "I've never seen anything like that in my life."