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See you later, alligator
07/02/2007 10:39 - (SA)
Baltimore - No ducks, no lizards, or snakes over 1.5 metres long. Baltimore wants to ban many exotic animals as pets.
The city's health department is acting after residents complained about noise and unsanitary conditions. One caller to the animal control department said a neighbour was slaughtering nine sheep.
"There's never a dull moment," Bob Anderson, the animal control director, told The Baltimore Sun newspaper. His department handles 30 000 calls a year involving everything from pigeons to pigs to bees.
The city had about 635 000 people in 2005, according to US census estimates.
Alligators would be out under the proposed ban. So would roosters. An $80 permit would buy the right to keep chickens, Vietnamese potbellied pigs and up to 50 pigeons per residence.
"It's really important because we're seeing a growing number of persons in the city trying to harbour these types of animals," said Olivia Farrow, assistant commissioner for environmental health.
"And we're really worried about the health of the animals themselves."
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