RUMFORD – Mike States Jr. moved to Rumford last year, bringing with him his 8-foot-long boa constrictor, a bearded dragon lizard, and a 5-foot-long green iguana named “Drago.”

But green iguanas are not on Maine’s unrestricted fish and wildlife species list. Drago wasn’t welcome.

States wants Maine to loosen its limits on exotic animals. “We’re nothing without the beast,” he said.

It is the job of Major Thomas Santaguida of the Maine Warden Service to enforce Maine’s beast limits.

“There are 13 million species of wildlife, and everything not on that unrestricted list is (either) allowed by permit, or it’s prohibited,” said Santaguida, 42, of New Gloucester.

In Maine’s past, a person “only needed to fill out an application for a permit, pay the fee and they got the animal. Now the bar’s a lot higher, because it was getting out of hand,” he said Wednesday. “The new regulations have slowed down the free for all,” Santaguida said.

“We were forever picking up snakes in Lewiston,” he said.

States, 27, said he is using his knowledge of reptiles, turtles and other exotic pets in an attempt to conserve them through captivity.

“Captivity is conservation. Without it, animals will die off. I’m trying to help animals and help animals propagate in captivity,” States said.

That’s why he has initiated a citizen petition drive for a mass rewrite of the unrestricted list. To do that, he needs to collect 150 signatures to get the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to consider a regulation change.

“I’m not trying to start problems. I’m trying to correct the wrongs and make them rights,” States said.

The process to get a restricted animal into the state legally involves applying for an importation permit, paying a $25 fee, and allowing the state to inspect care facilities and the animal. The state also checks a potential owner’s credentials and reason for wanting to keep wildlife in captivity.

Santaguida reviews the permit applications to ensure compliance with Maine’s rules. The rules were developed by biologists, he said.

Santaguida is receptive to the desires of people interested in properly caring for the needs of wild animals raised in captivity.

But ever-tightening budget cuts and a lack of expertise and staffing have pretty much tied his hands as the overseer of all field operations for the Warden Service and those of the Bureau of Resource Management, which regulates wildlife kept in captivity.

Santaguida said the fee to file an import permit was nowhere near the cost to Santaguida’s unit. He said the average cost for the state to process permits is $250, and, as a result, he would be petitioning the Legislature to increase the fee to $250.

Hedgehog hedging

The challenge, he said, is New Hampshire, which allows almost anything from the pet trade into the state.

“When someone calls and says they got a hedgehog in New Hampshire and brought it here, we don’t send in the army though,” Santaguida said.

Hedgehogs, many snakes and lizards and most species of fish, including the nation’s first genetically altered fish – the GloFish, are restricted from Maine because they are believed to be carriers of disease.

The problem, he said, is that there are a lot of animals that are not harmful, but if the bureau believes bringing them into the state would affect the health of indigenous wildlife, they’re not allowed.

Drago is not one of them. After going through an extensive screening process, paying the $25 and filing an exotic species importation permit, the green iguana was allowed in.

Santaguida is the one who told States how to go through the petition process. About 40 people from the River Valley area have signed the petition to date, a copy of which is at the Mexico Pet Shop on Main Street.

“I want to try to come to an agreement with the state, and I have several options that they may agree with,” he said.