Exotic-animal lovers want more species legalized as pets in NYC

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Exotic-pet laws in New York City are for the birds, animal lovers say.

The city’s ferret-banning health code unfairly targets all sorts of lovable-but-strange pets — such as iguanas, pigs and hedgehogs, exotic pet owners from Brooklyn and Long Island claim.

Marc Morrone, 54, of Oceanside, LI, owns a bat named Bernie, a hedgehog named Pokey and a bearded dragon lizard named Grimlock — all of which are illegal in the city. He claims that policy “isn’t logical.”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Do you know how many people have been bitten by dogs or gotten sick from a cat scratch? And we let them sleep in bed with us!” Morrone fumed. “Pigs are actually smarter and cleaner than dogs,” Morrone said, who owns the pet store Parrots of the World in Rockville Centre.

“If a person demonstrates that they can house the animal adequately and has knowledge about them, I think it should be legal,” said Rhea Nodel, 57, of Park Slope, Brooklyn, who legally owns a king snake, turtles and lizards.

More than 176 species of animals are outlawed under the city health code. The de Blasio administration is considering overturning the ban on ferrets, which were deemed a health risk in 1999.

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