Why can’t you show off your python on Bourbon Street, anyway? See the rules in New Orleans.

The illicit display of snakes as entertainment, sometimes seen in the French Quarter, seems to be rare in most American cities. In a Dec. 13 get-acquainted press conference, New Orleans’ new police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick noted New Orleans' peculiar penchant for serpent exhibition.

"You're not going to see (exotic animals) in Seattle. You're not even going to see it in Oakland," she said, referring to previous stints as a chief on the West Coast.

And now, we may not be seeing them in the Crescent City either.

Until a crackdown that began last fall, the French Quarter apparently harbored a flourishing community of unlicensed and otherwise renegade street vendors and performers. Including a handful of illicit snake handlers.

On Feb. 3, police officers confiscated a roughly 10-foot-long, ivory-colored python on Bourbon Street that was allegedly being used to solicit tips in exchange for photo ops.  The owner was arrested for possession of a wild or exotic animal and exhibition without a permit.

In a photograph provided by the state, two police officers and the 10-foot python seem to pose calmly for the camera. The snake was relocated to the Audubon Zoo.

By the end of the Mardi Gras season, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries authorities had reportedly also rounded up a 14.5-foot python, a 3-foot python, and another 10-foot python too.

The problem with pythons

Media reports do not suggest that the seized serpents bit or attempted to strangle anyone. Nonetheless, the reptiles were prohibited by law and were therefore taken into custody. Further punishment for illicit reptile owners can include a fine of up to $500 and 90 days in jail.

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries spokesperson Taylor Brazan explained that the slithery violations could stem from both Louisiana and New Orleans codes.

On the state level, lengthy title 56, section 632.5.1 advises that: “The importation or private possession of constrictor snakes in excess of eight feet long, obtained in any manner, shall be only by permit issued by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries except for animals kept by animal sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, etc.”

In other words, regular Joes need a permit to own a constrictor snake that's more than 8 feet long.

This includes your Papuan pythons, olive pythons, carpet or diamond pythons, scrub pythons, amethystine pythons, Southern African pythons, African rock pythons, Indian or Burmese pythons, and, yes, the preferred French Quarter python, the reticulate python. It would also include boa constrictors and anacondas.

It should be noted that the online registration form does not seem either onerous or expensive. It requires only routine contact information. And it’s free.

Adult size

But before you start planning your pet python Petunia’s promenade in the Vieux Carre, there’s another, higher legal hurdle.

If you examine New Orleans’ municipal codes, you’ll find Sec. 18-7, which warns that “No person shall keep or permit to be kept any wild, or exotic animal as a pet.”

Not a monkey, lion, tiger, tarantula, alligator, crocodile, or rooster, to name a few of the forbidden beasts.

There are exceptions. By law, you can foster a ferret, rabbit, box or aquatic turtle, lab rat, captive raised skunk, and “pocket pets” including a hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, chinchilla, sugar glider or hedgehog.

Pocket pets?

More pertinently, you may legally own a nonvenomous snake — except for "constricting snakes that will grow to an adult size larger than three feet.” Which rules out boa constrictors, anacondas, and the popular reticulate python, which in rare cases can grow to 23 feet.

Note: Yep, that would mean that even your daughter Sylvia’s cute baby ball python that she keeps in an aquarium in her room under a heat lamp is extralegal, since a ball python can grow to 6 feet long.

An anonymous employee of the Petco big-box pet store chain said that the company is aware of the prohibition on potentially large snakes and does not offer them for sale in New Orleans. He said that if he were to try to procure such a snake from Petco suppliers, his computer would advise him that such serpents are locally illegal, and would decline his request.

A loophole?

But back to the public exhibition of big or potentially big snakes on Bourbon Street and the surrounding area. There may be a loophole. A person might be able to apply for a 72-hour permit to display their ivory-colored constrictor snake. But the stakes are high. Municipal ordinance 18-111 stipulates that one must pay $150 (for under five animals) or $250 (for more than five) to City Hall and must prove they have public liability insurance and bonding in the amount of $250,000.00.

Truth is, ordinance 18-111 is designed for circuses and such, not individuals.

Hypothetically speaking, even if it wasn’t against the law to stroll Bourbon Street with a python big enough to eat a Chihuahua, there’s still a potential legal problem.

The mayor’s press secretary, John F. Lawson, pointed out that if you are soliciting payment for exhibiting a snake, it implies you have a business, which would require you to “have an occupational license and pay taxes.”  

The exact state or city violations allegedly committed by the Vieux Carre snake handlers who were cited by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department is unknown. The New Orleans Police Department referred questions to LWFD, which encouraged this reporter to make a formal public records request to receive any such information.