KA Press: Leavenworth considers exotic-animal resolution

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: THE STAR (Kansas City, Kansas) 27 August 01 After recent attacks, Leavenworth considers exotic-animal resolution (Mark Wiebe) : Leavenworth County Sheriff Herb Nye doesn't want the county to become a haven for wild or "exotic" animals. : So, in the wake of two recent incidents where caged, exotic animals sent two persons to the hospital, Nye is calling for regulation and said he plans to take the matter to the Leavenworth County Commission. : The county has no resolution that applies to wild or exotic animals, but several Kansas City area counties do. : "People could say, `Let's move to Leavenworth County and open a gorilla farm,' and there's nothing we could do about it," Nye said. : The two recent incidents occurred at the same residence in southern Leavenworth County near Tonganoxie. : On Sunday, a caged bear bit a 31-year-old Lawrence man on the inside of his right forearm. The man, who was attempting to pet the 4-year-old bear, was treated and released at KU Med Center. : A week before that, a caged lion bit a woman who was trying to feed peaches to some bears. The woman was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. : Nye said that the animals' owner, Richard Provance, who could not be reached for comment, had not broken any local or state laws. The same was true, he said, of the two other county residents he knows about who have kept exotic animals as pets. : "It's not a huge problem," Nye said. "I just don't want Leavenworth County to be an unregulated county. We have no control over anything, really, unless they're being cruel to (the animals)." : Kansas requires an owner's permit for persons possessing mountain lions, black bears, grizzly bears and wolves -- all of them indigenous to the state, wildlife officials said. But the state does not have a regulation that applies to exotic, nonindigenous animals such as lions and tigers. : Missouri leaves it up to local governments to determine their own regulations. : In the metropolitan area, several counties prevent or tightly control the housing of exotic or wild animals. : In Kansas: Wyandotte County prevents residents from keeping as pets or displaying "nondomesticated animals" or any animal that can "normally be found in the wild state," excluding various rodents, small amphibians, nonpoisonous snakes, birds and fish. Owners of monkeys before 1992 are grandfathered into the ordinance. : Johnson County requires a conditional-use permit but hasn't issued one since the early 1980s. : Douglas County enacted a ban on "dangerous" or exotic animals earlier this year. : In Missouri: Jackson County prohibits keeping exotic animals as pets. : Neither Platte nor Clay counties has a resolution. But Planning and Zoning Director Carole Bloom said Clay County is considering one. :

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