ERIC LeBLANC: They don’t have fleas,
they're low maintenance. You don’t have take them to the vet regularly like a dog or a cat.
But honestly they make the best pets!
ERIC LeBLANC: It is definitely my passion.
It’s my job. It’s everything I do. It’s my hobby. I’ve been into them probably for
about 38 years, ever since I was old enough to catch my first snake or lizard.
COMM: Eric Leblanc shares his Californian
home with huge lizards, snakes and his 3 young children.
ERIC LeBLANC: The worst bite my daughter got
was from a Bearded Dragon. He got bit in the head one time in the forehead by a Ball Python
when he was about 2. He opened up one of the tubs after me and just startled it. Did it
hurt Larry, when you got bit?
LARRY LeBLANC: I got bit on the nose.
ERIC LeBLANC: But did it hurt?
LARRY LeBLANC: Yeah.
ERIC LeBLANC: It didn’t hurt.
KATIE LeBLANC: I like snakes because when
they are like kind of gentle with you and they don’t really try to turn around and
strike at you. When you start to tame it that means you have to hold it free, supporting
and chill. You’ll love it and they are not gonna hurt you.
ERIC LeBLANC: I think it’s cool that she’s
passionate. They wanted to mess with them, and that’s how I let them, I never forced
them to hold snakes or anything like that.
COMM: And while Eric is happy that his children
are confident around the animals, he would never leave them unsupervised.
ERIC LeBLANC: I know what they are capable
of. Just like anything, it’s just respecting it. When you hold the big one as I was telling
you, you can feel the muscle. Like she moves you. You can feel her just kind of holding
you to feel secure, you can feel their strength.
ERIC LeBLANC: In this country just everybody
has got an opinion. People think it’s safe to take the kids surf boarding, downhill skate
boarding. I won’t take my kids to shoot guns. I won’t take my kids do half of those
things. I guess to each their own. Do I ever worry about my kids being bitten? Unfortunately,
my kids have been bitten by a Ball Python and a Bearded Dragon. When I was a kid I got
bit by dogs, I got bit by a snake.
ERIC LeBLANC: My worst accidents were probably
falling out of trees and stuff like that so, I mean, when it’s all said and done, they
know how to approach them. They can definitely tell when something is agitated. They’re
pretty conscious of everything that is going on around them. They are absorbing it.
COMM: Eric has always had a house full of exotic animals.
ERIC LeBLANC: This is Shelby. She's a Lavender
Albino Reticulated Python. The largest snake in the world. There’s a Caiman Lizard. They
come from Peru. These are a pair of Blue Tongued Skinks. These are my kids’ pets right here.
This is a Dohlinar. He's a Nile Monitor from Africa. This one has been my daughter’s
pet since he was about 6 inches long. He got gangrene in his tail, so we had to amputate it.
This is Charlie, our male Rhino Iguana. Cuban Rock Iguana. I named him ‘Knuckles’
‘cause his sister chewed his fingers off when they were little babies.
COMM: But recently, his house is even more
crowded after a fire in his reptile shop, he’s had to bring a lot of injured animals
home to recuperate.
ERIC LeBLANC: It was the worst tragedy almost
of my life. If it would’ve just been merchandise that burned, I can live with that. The fact
that it was living animals is just, it’s a bit hard. A lot of them were my kids’ pets.
They all had names.
ERIC LeBLANC: God, at the time we probably
had 600-700 lizards honestly. There was a 100 Geckos alone, about 20 Tegus, 10 Iguanas,
20 Monitors, tons of little Skinks and just different various lizards. A lot of stuff
unfortunately died of smoke inhalation in the fire.
ERIC LeBLANC: It seems like a lot of them
are still having respiratory problems from the smoke. That’s why it’s a mess in
here right now and everybody’s housed together.
COMM: Thankfully, one of his most prized lizards,
Jelly Bean, survived.
ERIC LeBLANC: Jelly Bean is 7 feet 2 inches.
He is a Crocodile Monitor, third largest monitor in the world. Next to the Komodo Dragon out of
Indonesia, magnificent creature it really is. As you can see he suffered a lot of burns.
We got him medical attention and we are just treating him. We had to get him a whole tank
of oxygen. As you can see all the scales on his face, he made it through wherever the
worst part of the fire was somehow.
COMM: Now Eric is concentrating on getting
his business up and running again and taking care of his injured animals.
ERIC LeBLANC: I’m gonna pray, keep my fingers
crossed. So now, we are just doing everything we can. These are all our pets; we’ve
raised all of these things since they are 3 feet long. Well everybody has got a name in here.