DID you hear about the man in Dublin who keeps an alligator in his front room? The perfect urban myth. Truth is it was a cayman (a smaller South American member of the alligator family). . .and it was in a tank in the room. . .and he doesn't have it any more, according to a friend.
"His missus didn't like it in the front room," said the man, who didn't want to be named. Their marriage almost broke up over the animal, the story goes. She moved out and the cayman stayed, he said. Rumour has it that he fed it on rats from the basement.
But, under pressure from a press hungry for stories about his weird pet, the man sold his cayman last year. Only he knows who bought it and he's not telling. According to his friend, the marriage difficulties have been resolved.
If it is still alive, the cayman could be in a tank on the shag pile of another suburban front room.
One wild story became fact last weekend when the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals removed a jaguar and another wild cat from a garage in the Ronanstown area of Dublin.
Princess, the full grown female jaguar, and the African serval are guests of the State at Dublin Zoo while the authorities decide their fate. Both Ivan Yates and Michael D. Higgins are responsible for the two big cats.
If their owner cannot prove they were bred in Ireland, the National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS), under the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, can decide to destroy them or send them to zoos elsewhere. Dublin Zoo does not include the visitors in its long term plans.
If they were imported, the Department of Agriculture is responsible for ensuring that they are free of rabies and other diseases.
For the ISPCA, finding a potential man eater in an end of terrace on a housing estate highlighted the need for a law on dangerous and exotic animals. The society will present a draft bill to the Department of Agriculture before the end of the month.
The measures suggested include issuing different licences for private pet owners and commercial operators. The bill also would allow for inspection of licensed animal keepers, and would give the right of appeal to the District Court if someone is refused a licence.
Ciaran O'Donovan, ISPCA chief executive, says the system could work under one authority and believes the need is urgent.
"As soon as someone gets killed by one of these animals there's going to be a hullabaloo, and we'll be among the ones being blamed," he said.
Two years ago the ISPCA spent more than £25,000 finding new homes for two Siberian tigers, two tiger cubs, two baboons and a Canadian black bear which were being kept in Castlemahon Co Limerick.
That collection of animals, owned by Mr Stafford Taylor was dismantled by the ISPCA after it came to public attention on The Gay Byrne Show, according to Mr O'Donovan. The tigers were sent to a zoo in California, the baboons to the UK and the Canadian bear is "safely back in the hills of Canada". Most of the cost came from bringing in British exotic animal experts to tranquillise and transport the animals.
Animal collectors Mr O'Donovan says, are mostly well meaning people who like a bit of exotic life in their lives. That's OK if they've got a wildlife park . . . but what would have happened if someone left a garage door open?"
Mr O'Donovan says big cats are the biggest status symbol among exotic animal collectors. "We want something done before there's a tragedy, before someone's eaten alive by an animal."
According to the Trust for the Welfare of Captive Wildlife, the latest two cats probably came from a dealer in Northern Ireland. The British system of licensing does not apply in the North so it can be a sanctuary for wild animal enthusiasts. The Ronanstown jaguar could have been sold by a British zoo.
The organisation says that a for sale list from Northern dealers is circulating among those in the know and even those who usually wouldn't be in the know. It estimates there are about 18 big cats for sale.
The ISPCA's draft bill would also give the nominated authority the power to seize an animal and destroy or relocate it. Fines for non compliance would range from £500 to £1,000 for private owners.
At the moment the market for the more exotic animals, like wild cats, operates on word of mouth. If you're prepared to pay the shipping costs, you could order cougar cubs by phoning a US number advertised on the Internet. A number of pet shops sell snakes and big spiders, but ads for the furry kind jaguar do not normally appear in the small ads columns.
The big cat has become quite a status symbol among the hard men. Why have leopard skin seat covers in the motor, if you can have the real thing in the garage?
One Dublin pet shop owner said he had stopped stocking snakes because they attracted "too many freaks". He knows a man in Terenure who keeps rattlesnakes. If he is bitten, he will have to travel to Edinburgh for the anti venom serum.
"The eating habits of snakes generally put people off," he said.
If you buy a two foot python it could grow to 18 feet long and then it no longer eats mice. It eats rabbits. . .and maybe the family cat. He says the most popular exotic pet is a monkey.
"People see a Tarzan picture and want a chimp, without realising that a full grown chimp could rip your arms out, and beat you to death with them.
Under properly inspected conditions and provided they are not a danger to people, keeping exotic animals as pets is acceptable to most animal rights groups, even though they would be better off roaming the rain forest rather than the back garden.
Meanwhile, have you heard about the man in West Cork who keeps a circus lion?
