From Deseret News archives:
Snake rescuer 'bitten'?
DWR raids W.V. man's home, yet still turns to him for help
Yet even after charges were filed against him, the DWR continues to rely on James Dix's Reptile Rescue Service. It still turns over to him nonprohibited reptiles that need care.
Confusingly, the charges hinge on Dix not having the proper type of permits. Yet different sorts of permits are involved, and at the time of the raid, Dix had a certificate allowing him to handle any type of reptile delivered to him by the DWR for rehabilitation.
Dix estimates about 14 armed officers searched his home for six hours during the January 2004 incident. Nobody was allowed to enter or leave.
Mike Fowlks — now chief of law enforcement for the DWR and at the time a captain supervising the execution of the search warrant — checked his notes and said there were seven armed officers, including himself, and they searched for four hours.
The result: six class B misdemeanor charges.
Dix is charged with possessing without the proper permit a midget faded rattlesnake, a Gila monster (a venomous lizard), a Utah milksnake, a southwestern speckled rattlesnake and a Panamint rattlesnake. The sixth charge is that he "intentionally captured seven Great Basin rattlesnakes, valued at $5 each."
A pretrial conference in the case is scheduled for Monday in West Valley City Justice Court.
Dix believes the DWR wanted to get him because of a dispute over permits and set him up.
"We had a rapport with them. It wasn't like I was a total stranger. . . . I would have given them the stuff" without the need for armed officers, he said.
Richard Ashcroft, the DWR's lead investigator in the case, said Dix originally was not targeted by the federal and state agents but became involved when he approached an undercover informant.
The background
For the past five years, Dix, a plumber, has run Reptile Rescue Service Inc. out of his house. He and the group's other volunteers try to save, rehabilitate and find new homes for discarded, displaced or injured reptiles.
"It's love for the animals," he said in a telephone interview. "They need a place to go."
The group is careful about where it places reptiles. Members visit the person hoping to take one in, to make sure the home is safe. Otherwise, the reptile could be injured or killed by another pet.
"I meet a lot of turtles like that — doggy bone turtles, we call them," he said.
