DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — A black bear cub confiscated at a Dayton home Wednesday, July 23, won't be in the area long, according to Sharon Exline, animal cruelty investigator with the Humane Society of the Greater Dayton Area.

"We're able to accommodate her for the short term, but we're not set up to take care of bears here," Exline said. "We're trying to get her to a bear sanctuary as quickly as we can arrange to transport her."

The three-month-old black bear was one of two exotic animals authorities confiscated Wednesday in Dayton, which has an ordinance outlawing possession of potentially dangerous exotic pets. Not long after the bear was taken from a home on Catskill Lane, a three-foot-long ball python was picked up on Burkhardt Avenue, according to Tim Harrison, director of Outreach for Animals.

"It was a young snake," Harrison said. "A full-grown ball python can get to be five or six feet long."

Neighbors alerted authorities that the black bear cub was being kept at the Catskill Lane address. When police arrived, they found the animal tied to a fence wearing a collar equipped to deliver electric shocks.

A resident of the house said the bear belonged to a relative, and Exline said Humane Society personnel haven't been able to contact the alleged owner to get information on the animal. She said it's not clear how the bear was acquired or why it was being kept in a residential neighborhood.

The bear, a female, appears to be in good condition but may be slightly underweight, Exline said. Black bears once ranged over most of North America but now have moved out of most of the continental United States, according to the Website of the North American Bear Center.

Sexually mature female black bears typically grow to 90 to 300 pounds, but males are generally 125 to 500 pounds, and the largest on record weighed 880 pounds the Bear Center said.

Exline said the Humane Society was able to set the confiscated bear up with an outside play area with a rigid plastic children's play pool.

"She's been having a great time," Exline said. "She acts like a two-year-old kid. Very energetic, very playful."

Exline said the bear will be examined by a local veterinarian and may need some immunizations before she can be shipped to a bear sanctuary.

Meanwhile, Harrison said the confiscated ball python is being held by Outreach for Animals until placement with a reptile rescue operation can be arranged. Outreach for Animals, Harrison said, is a collaboration among local police, firefighters and others to handle potentially dangerous animals.

He said the ball python found on Burkhardt Drive is not venomous and was not dangerous to humans. But he said it was being kept in a backyard shed from which it could have escaped.

And as if that all wasn't enough, Harrison said hundreds of snakes escaped from their owner at a house just outside Dayton. Harrison said a man ordered close to 400 baby snakes from eBay with the intention of reselling them at a profit.

Harrison said most of the snakes got out of their containers, but the owner rounded most of them up before help from Outreach for Animals arrived. He said a few of the snakes probably are still at large, but they are small, nonvenomous and harmless.

"People get these exotic animals, and they find out later the animals are more than they can handle," Harrison said. "When that happens we ask people to get in touch with us through outreachforanimals.org. We don't want people just setting their exotic animals loose."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.