Pleasant Grove delays vote on python business

PLEASANT GROVE — With the caution of a turtle, the Pleasant Grove City Council postponed a decision that would allow residents to operate small, home-run businesses that sell nonpoisonous snakes, turtles and amphibians.

The amendment to the city's exotic animal husbandry ordinance is too broad, City Attorney Christine Petersen said after talking with a National Humane Society representative Monday.

"She expressed some extreme concern about our consideration of this ordinance," Petersen said. "Her feelings were that this ordinance was opening the door too wide."

The current phrasing of the ordinance would allow exotic pet breeders of nonpoisonous snakes, amphibians and turtles to receive conditional-use permits to raise and sell the animals in their homes.

It also would allow residents to have one exotic pet — animals requiring a higher standard of care and control — per household. The amendment would exclude animals that "pose a threat to human life under normal circumstances."

The representative from the National Humane Society recommended the City Council instead specifically identify which animals would be allowed and which would not.

"This (the current proposal) might permit a variety of animals that perhaps we wouldn't want," Petersen said.

Other concerns brought forth by the representative include problems with salmonella, ticks or animals escaping that would affect neighbors.

"I think probably those concerns are valid and we ought to take a look at them before we amend the ordinance so broadly," Petersen said.

The move to amend the ordinance is in response to James and Pam Cantrell's application for a home-business license to sell ball pythons on the Internet from their home at 1143 E. 740 South.

"We want to be good citizens of this community. ... We in no way want to threaten the health or welfare of the community," Pam Cantrell said in response to the concerns brought forward. "Even though this is our business and we have invested interest in it, we also stand on the side of caution."

They said their business would be run according to the standards of the National Reptile Improvement Plan, which the city plans to incorporate into the amendment.

The Cantrells' application has been in hibernation since October as city planners have worked to amend the city ordinance.

Another option the City Council will consider is adopting an individual ordinance specifically allowing one type of animal — for example, the ball python.

The city will readdress the issue, in light of the new information, on April 3.

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