SNAKE ATTACK STIRS PET DEBATE.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

Until a 7-1/2-foot boa sneaked onto her enclosed patio in West Hills and made a meal of her Chihuahua, Flossie ``Jackie'' Torgerson, had no idea the exotic snake was living down the street at her neighbor's house.

The city of Los Angeles didn't know either, despite its permitting system that requires wild animals - including all snakes - to get a $70 annual permit.

Most snake owners, let alone the pet stores, don't know the permits are required.

``I've been selling them for 23 years, and I've never heard of that before,'' said Howard Feldman, the owner of California Pet Center, which has been in Woodland Hills since 1959.

Only 30 people in the city of Los Angeles have licensed snakes. ``We have no way of knowing how many unregistered snakes there are,'' said Peter Persic, the spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation.

The pet stores are not required to give any information to pet buyers, a policy some reptile fanciers say may help cashbox profits but can lead to animal deaths.

Iguana buyers, for example, are surprised when the cute little critters grow to 6 feet with a powerful tail and when the males become extremely aggressive two months each year in breeding season.

``They never tell you that in the pet store. They're just interested in selling you that 6-inch iguana,'' said Sylmar resident Sandy Chase, a past president of the Reptile Club.

After Torgerson saw her 2-pound companion, Babette, disappear down the boa's gullet, she vowed to force the city to outlaw all dangerous animals in neighborhoods. She's begun circulating a petition, which she calls ``Babette's Law.''

Days after Babette died, a 10-year-old Anaheim boy was attacked by his pet python while changing its water. In response to the incidents, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson made a motion to require that all owners of pet snakes in the city obtain special permits.

But although that requirement is already in the city's municipal code, it doesn't get much attention, animal control officials admitted.

``That kind of enforcement is not a high priority,'' Persic said.

The city department has a $7.2 million annual budget and 176 employees, including 49 animal control officers who staff the city's six shelters, he said. The shelters, which operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year, house about 80,000 animals annually.

After introducing his motion, Bernson said in an interview he would also like to see neighbors alerted - and possibly to have veto authority over - residents seeking snake permits.

``We should do something about it. People have a right to know if snakes or dangerous animals are living next door,'' Bernson said.

The Department of Animal Regulation has been considering a plan to require pet stores to give their customers a wild animal permit application with each appropriate pet purchase. The store would then provide the city with the address of each buyer.

``That report has been in the works for a while,'' Persic said Thursday, adding that it's now scheduled to be reviewed by the city in mid-September.

But some snake supporters said education might be a better solution than enforcement.

``You need to use more common sense instead of enacting more laws,'' said Carolyn Rutherford, a former vet technician who has rescued or raised a menagerie of animals - including opossums, raccoons, foxes, pygmy goats, tortoise, geese and a sea gull - at her 1-acre Tarzana home next to the Ventura Freeway. ``People have to realize that you have to take the responsibility if you're going to own these animals.''

Feldman, whose store is dedicated to educating its customers, suggested the city require pet store employees to pass a test in order to ensure they are able to educate their customers.

He said other pet stores practice a dangerous money-grubbing sales policy with some exotics: ``Here's the cage. Here's the lizard. Here's the light. Goodbye.''

Chase said the pet stores should be required to sell a small book on the animal's needs in the way of food and caging, as well as potential size. She also said children under 18 should not be allowed to own snakes such as anacondas or Burmese pythons.

``Responsible people can keep snakes,'' said Harvey Fischer, Curator of Reptiles at the Los Angeles Zoo. ``You just don't do anything foolish. You need to understand the animal.''

Fischer and others guessed that the Anaheim boy may have had a food smell on his hand, reached in quickly and the snake mistook his hand for a rat.

James Grizzell of Venice is the current president of the Reptile Club, also known as the Southwestern Herpetologist Society, which studies reptiles and amphibians. It has 400 members in the greater Los Angeles area.

He said he sympathizes with the woman whose dog was eaten, but thinks outlawing the snakes altogether isn't the answer. He and others in the society are alarmed over the rush to change the laws because one owner did not have his boa properly caged.

``I'm quite upset with the gentleman because he wasn't taking care of the animal in an adequate way,'' Grizzell said.

``It's people's responsibility, and the pet stores need to be able to tell people what they're getting themselves in for,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--color) Howard Feldman kisses an affectionate macaw at his Woodland Hills pet store.

(2--color) A black-and-white tegu lizard flicks his tongue while getting his neck rubbed at the California Pet Center in Woodland Hills.

(3--color) A red-eyed tree frog sits atop fingertips at the California Pet Center.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News

Box: POPULAR EXOTIC PETS