There is a rental community here in Edmonton who prides itself on being "pet friendly". I can get on board when rental places don't allow pets. That's fair. I can get on board with the big or noisy dogs, as they CAN cause trouble. I can dig the no cats thing, cause they can destroy carpets. What I don't understand is when a place which has big letters on most of their ads saying "pets welcome" has an INFLEXIBLE rule stating NO REPTILES, ESPECIALLY SNAKES. As soon as I asked about reptiles, they lady on the phone went from jovial to very cold. I said "If you allow fish, why don't you allow reptiles in fish tanks?" She concured that it wasn't fair and said that it would be fine, only if they were small and didn't come out. Then I mentioned we had a snake and she flipped out on me.

I feel descriminated against when they allow all manors of pets, priding themselves on it, and then disallow ALL reptiles, not to mention the lady talking down to me as soon as I asked a question about it.

Anyone else have problems like this or is this city just terrible for yet another reason?

Ive had the same problem when I was looking for an apt, I think they assume that reptiles are horrible baby eating monsters and if they do get out they will destroy all who cross there path...its not only a problem with the reptiles themselves but more what the reptiles eat sometimes as well. The woman Im living with now absolutley adoress my boa, but when she came home to a frozen rat thawing out on her counter she had second thoughts,,haha, now Libi stays so long as I get my own freezer
people are just ignorant...it happens.
Sorry to hear about this bad experience

Most of the apartments around here dont allow "exotics"...so..I am unfortunatley stuck where I currently reside for the time being.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

I had the same problem awhile back. It seems cats are allowed free reign wherever they chose to roam. Meanwhile cats carry way more zoonose diseases than reptiles. Sorry but in my opinion cats are filthy if you choose to let them in and out as they wish. Back to topic. I had a young Sav monitor and two ferrets at the time. I was asked by the owner of the building to politely get rid of the Sav but no mention of the ferrets being a problem. I figured with the herd of cats in the building it wouldn't be an issue. I think reptiles just have that mystique about them that frightens people. Especially snakes. Probably won't change anytime soon.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

Hello,

I just don't tell anyone and then move in. lol If they see them later, I say "sorry". lol I have never been asked to get rid of them. If they have to go, I would have to give notice and find a new residence.

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A big part of the problem is the phobias people have about reptiles and snakes in particular. With apartments the problem gets worse since people are living in such close proximity and even share interior walls. There have been so many stories of a snake getting loose in an apartment and moving throught the walls or plumbing and showing up in an unsuspecting neighbors apartment.
And then there is the problem with the media making us all out to be hoodlums and drug dealers!
There is also the irresponsible keeper problem. Dirty herp tanks STINK! And the odor is not necessarily stopped by the walls! All it takes is one experience with some one like this to decide that those things are not going to be in my property.

Add on to this the image that we as keepers get due to some moron that thinks its funny to stick a snake in people s faces and yell boo!

We have a lot of negative Page Ranking to overcome and unfortunately we have imbeciles who do their very best to perpetuate the negative stereotype.

As entertaining as that notion is it could land you in a lot of trouble. In some leases there is fine print that stipulates that the landlord may fine you x number of dollars for any undeclared pet on the premises.
I found out about this quite by accident. I got a letter from the management company informing me that since I had all these animals that "nobody knew about" that I was facing fines of several thousand dollars.
Now mind you we had never made it any secret as to what we had in our home. Every manager had known about them and many had even come over for show and tell! The attitude that they had was since the animals were confined and not a threat to the property value it did not require a pet deposit.
Well it turns out that they were in the process of selling the property and were trying to squeeze as much money out of the tenants as possible in addition to the sale price.

And they really backed off whan I informed them that the man who actually physically owned the property had sat in my living room and looked at snakes!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

sorry to hear what happened but I agree with Rich just move in and dont say anything, its not like your sneaking a dog in and you have to worry about the dog barking. sometimes the less they know the better.

Here's the downlow:

I called the head office. The girl I got didn't even know what a cockateil was, but I tore a HUGE strip off her for screening me from the head hauncho.

I said this:

Some dogs are banned, based on loudness and problems in the past. I can deal with that. But to say no reptiles? Why not ban certain reptiles? I said I guarentee I have reptiles they've never heard of before, why are they banned when all dogs aren't banned? she kept feeding me the line "In the past there has been problems."

One of my favorite excuses she gave was that other tenants are uncomfortable with it. Next time I move in to a place, I said, I'll be sure to knock on every door and tell them what I'm up to every single day...cause it's their business. I then went on to say "What if I felt uncomfortable with people over the age of 30 in my building? Would you disallow that? No, you wouldn't. This is discrimination."

I asked why "exotics" are banned if cocktiels and budgees are allowed (rabbits in this case are banned as "exotics").

I said it was pet owner profiling. I hate to bring in the race card, but it was a legit analogy: "It's like pulling over a hispanic just for driving a BMW".

She eventually caved and said that I can work things out with the site managers. I'm furious with them, I'm actually gonna call again and again until they cave.

I cant say I blame you for being upset, but honsetly dont let them get to you..they are just making themselves out to be jerks if they want to act this way...

I'm gonna keep bugging them til they stop screening my calls. I want to know WHY they are doing this. I won't take stupid garbage answers from an operator...besides, if I cry enough in a polite way, they will probably cave. Since I'm doing it completely anonymously, I can just move in anyways if things don't work for me.

Fight the power!