Northern Iowa Man Pleads Guilty to Keeping a Dangerous Animal

THORNTON, Iowa (AP) — A boa constrictor that escaped its cage and slithered down the block has cost its owner $50 in northern Iowa.

The Mason City Globe Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1JJn9tH ) that 38-year-old Kevin Becker pleaded guilty Wednesday and was fined for keeping a dangerous animal in Thornton, Iowa.

A retired Iowa Natural Resources Department officer saw the snake in a yard a block or two from Becker’s home on Sept. 16. The retired officer grabbed it, put it in his pickup and called the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Office.

The red-tailed boa was variously described as being 7 to 9 feet long. Becker says he doesn’t know how it got out.

Sheriff Kevin Pals says Becker has agreed to find the snake a new home.