A Brooklyn boa-constrictor dealer is making tens of thousands of dollars a year from a Greenpoint basement despite a citywide ban on his slithering merchandise, The Post has learned.
Mark Scott, 46, raises and sells the reptiles for up to $3,000 apiece, despite an ordinance prohibiting ownership of any member of the Boidae family of nonvenomous snakes. Hidden in the bowels of his parents’ home, East River Constrictors is filled with snakes, heating lamps, cages — and a freezer full of dinner rats.
“I’m not letting anyone take my stuff,” Scott told The Post. “This is a passion to me. If they’re going to lock me up, I swear to you they’re going to lock me up.”
Constrictors kill their prey by wrapping themselves around their victims and slowly squeezing the life out of them.
Some of Scott’s snakes grow to 8 feet in length.
Incredibly, Scott said he ships the boas in standard cardboard boxes equipped with hot and cold packs and labeled “Handle with Care.”
The defiant father of two said reptile retail is going through the roof, and estimated he’ll clear up to $100,000 this year in sales.
“I can sell them, boom boom boom,” he said. “It’s some quick moneymaking.”
But the city’s health code specifies a long list of critters — large and small, from armadillos to polar bears — that are not permitted inside five-borough homes, and Scott said the party could end quickly if the authorities ever take an interest in his illicit trade.
“The minute the guy knocks on my door and says something, the next day, these are gone,” he acknowledged, adding that he would simply relocate upstate. “I’ll never, ever lose my animals. I’ve got $46,600 invested in the snakes and another $10,000 that I know of invested in cages.”
While incidents of boas killing humans are rare, 17 people have died during US run-ins with the species since 1978, according to the Humane Society.
The boa buff launched the unusual enterprise two years ago and said his client list now stretches from the city to Thailand.
The parade of hipsters and older neighborhood residents who trundle past the unseen reptile farm have no idea of the boas in their midst.
Scott credited much of his success to one particularly virile snake he’s named Stud Muffin. The 2-year-old “Super Moonglow” boa has successfully sired 100 current and to-be kids — each of which can fetch thousands of dollars apiece on the open market.
The animal lover said he has little respect for overzealous city laws that crackdown on what he views as harmless pets.
“It’s a lot of BS,” he said. “If there was a problem or somebody was called because a baby was hurt, I’d understand.”
“I take care of them like I take care of my dogs,” Scott said of his snakes. “Like I take care of my kids. There’s no difference.”