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House in NY suburb `like a Brazilian rain forest'

From the outside, 117 Santa Barbara St. in the Long Island community of Lindenhurst looked pretty much like any other house on the block.

Except, that is, for the Australian emus in the side yard and the sundry surprises that lurked inside the house.

Despite that clue and an anonymous tip about exotic animals in the house, the authorities who arrived at the scene on Tuesday said they were unprepared for just how many they found.

creatures

Among the creatures filling the house in various cages, pens and tanks were nine alligators -- the longest measuring almost 1.5m -- a Nile crocodile, a large tortoise, endangered turtles, iguanas and other lizards, a python, two electric eels and various fish and birds.

"It's like a Brazilian rain forest," said Chief Roy Gross of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "You would never know it from the outside."

Through the afternoon and into the evening, officers from his agency, the Suffolk County Police and the State Department of Environmental Conservation explored the house's three levels and moved as many of the creatures as possible to a large bus. They will eventually be sent to a zoo.

"There's been about a 300 percent increase in these cases in the last year, but I've never seen anything like this in a house, and I've been doing this 22 years," Gross said.

cruelty to animals

The owner, Steve Weinkselbaum, was arrested on one charge of cruelty to animals because the tortoise was kept in a bathtub with its own excrement, and two turtles were found dead, Gross said.

The maximum penalty is a year in jail and a US$1,000 fine. Other charges are likely for harboring exotic animals without a license, as well as violations of the local zoning code, he said.

Weinkselbaum's home is listed as the business address for the Herpetological Search Service and Exchange, which offers nature books for sale.

"They're very nice people; the guy is perfectly harmless," said a neighbor. "We knew he was into snakes and reptiles, so it didn't take us by surprise. But I understand you can't have alligators in town."

Gross said that keeping such creatures was "not fair to the animal[s] and not fair to the public."

The danger of keeping such unorthodox house pets was clearly illustrated when an alligator recently attacked a duck in a local lake while a child looked on, he said.

"I know its happening all over," Gross said of the craze for unusual animals. "People want something bigger and badder [but] they should [nevertheless] stick to puppies and birds."
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