There was a local incident where a guy living in a neighborhood had 75 snakes, and several of them were exotic deadly snakes of which one– a spitting cobra – got loose. He never reported his snake escape and it was on the loose in the neighborhood for over 7 MONTHS until a neighbor saw it on their porch and called 911 because they thought it might be an invasive species. It took authorities 2 days to safely capture it.

Because of this incident, authorities became aware of the fact that the owner had improper enclosures for more than half his snakes. There are laws regarding exotic snake ownership and they were able to charge him for the enclosures and failure to report the escape. As part of the plea deal he had to give up all of his snakes.

So, no one was hurt and decent judicial outcome in my opinion.

However, it didn't address one thing that kind of still bothers me. I have no way to know whether my neighbor has highly venomous snakes or whether they have proper enclosures, and if one escapes, I might not get notified.

Do neighbors have any right to know if you own deadly snakes? Or is it none of their business? Would requiring annual in-home inspections of enclosures be too "government invasive"?