It was 9 a.m. when Jay Christie got the call: Milwaukee authorities had a building filled with reptiles, and they needed help to clear them out.
“We can be there in an hour,” said Christie, president and CEO of the Racine Zoo.
He loaded crates, pillowcases, empty kitty litter containers, a pinch grabber, snake hook and four pairs of tall rubber boots into the zoo’s van, and drove to Milwaukee. He stopped on the way to pick up Billie Henderson, the zoo’s reptile specialist.
Christie had heard there were as many as 500 reptiles in the building at 2323 S. 13th St., on Milwaukee’s south side.
Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission had pulled some animals out of a home a few blocks away, after police stumbled across the collection of snakes, turtles and crocodiles during an unrelated investigation.
The building on 13th Street had even more animals inside.
There were security cameras on the corners of the building and over the doors. A trash bin outside was chained shut. Officers put on masks and respirators before going inside.
Christie and Henderson went in a few minutes after arriving. When they came out, Christie said the scene inside was one of a “classic hoarder.”
“You could only see 2 to 3 percent of the floor,” he said. “It was piled up with every imaginable piece of junk.”
Clothing, boxes, and containers holding the hundreds of reptiles filled the three floors of the building – basement, main level and upper story.
Some of the animals were loose, Christie said, including one of the largest – a crocodile, possibly protecting a nest.
A photographer with the Milwaukee Police Department shared a few shots from his camera – a large, scaly tail snaked through the frame.
That crocodile, Christie said, was probably six feet long.
He said there were snakes, turtles and “crocodilians of various sizes,” including American alligators, a dwarf Cayman and crocodiles of Mexican and Chinese varieties. There were large constrictor-type snakes, he said, and snapping turtles that probably weighed upwards of 100 pounds.
None of the animals appeared to be dangerous, he said, though “the largest crocodile is going to be a handful.”
Christie said they had not found any dead animals after several hours in the building.
“The conditions are inferior,” he said. “It’s very disappointing, disheartening and sobering all at once.”
In the middle of the work, Christie said, he hadn’t had much of an emotional response, but that it was “troubling to think about how long they may have been there.”
It is not clear exactly where the hundreds of animals will go from here, Christie said.
“Certainly the Racine Zoo and Milwaukee Zoo are unable to keep this many reptiles in their collections overnight,” he said.