NEWS

Proposed ‘snake factory’ spreads fear

Seth Slabaugh
seths@muncie.gannett.com

GASTON – A proposal to convert a vacant church into a “snake factory” is frightening a rural Gaston neighborhood that includes Wes-Del Community Schools.

Opponent Dick Nottingham is worried that a boa constrictor could escape from the facility and survive on mice and squirrels before growing large enough to consume cats and dogs. Next would come children, deer and coyotes.

At least that’s what he told the Delaware-Muncie Metropolitan Plan Commission in a letter opposing a zoning variance being sought by Jeff Ronne Sr., of Cannon Falls, Minn.

Doing business as “Boaphile,” Ronne is scheduled to appear before the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals on July 30 for approval to breed what he calls “harmless reptiles” in the vacant Open Gate Ministries church, 10000 N. Delaware County Road 525-W.

However, Ronne told The Star Press he is calling off the project “because of hysteria.”

“I’m not coming to Indiana,” he said, citing the “factual ridiculousness” of neighbors. “I can’t believe those people are really sincere,” he said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want to live next to 15 neighbors who are willing to do that to keep me from coming. It would not be a comfortable place for me and my family to be.”

While Ronne said he is canceling the project, the plan commission staff says he has not formally withdrawn his variance, which he would have needed because such a project is not permitted in the farming zone.

While Ronne uses nice, soft words like reptile husbandry and propagation to describe his business, his eye-opening Facebook page shows he operates a huge snake-breeding farm, opponent Carroll Nahre told planners.

Many other neighbors, including the school corporation, also oppose the variance on grounds that a snake escape is inevitable. The biggest safety concern expressed was for pets and children.

The variance application states that Ronne and his wife planned to convert part of the church into their residence and part of it into a business that would assemble, store and ship plastic cages and rack systems for reptiles and amphibians as well as breed reptiles on site for shipment to buyers.

“I have a huge fear of snakes,” Kelly Green told the commission in a letter. Just the thought of it “makes me very uneasy.”

“We will be able to sleep better at night not picturing boa constrictors in our dreams,” wrote Jeff and Kathy Crabtree.

Brian Carter foresees an escaped snake seeking warmth in his home as winter approaches.

Rick and Sue Denau called the project “a snake factory.”

Other opponents cited evidence of exotic animal escapes elsewhere in the country as well as a dozen human deaths from constrictors and hundreds of other incidents.

Calling himself “pretty much a worldwide recognized authority on boa constrictors,” Ronne said he builds and sells zoo cages that are completely secured from escape.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he said. “This isn’t a passing hobby.”

He added: “Boa constrictors are considered harmless reptiles unless you’re a rat. That’s as large a meal as they eat. In the wild, large ones eat things a little bigger than that, but mine, the largest they eat is a rat. This is definitely just hysteria.”

If a boa constrictor were to escape, “there are all kinds of predators that would eat them, or cars would drive over them,” Ronne said.

Several opponents said they were praying and begging zoning officials to deny the variance. “Lord save us all,” one wrote.

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.