ALLIGATORS and poisonous snakes are just some of the weird and wonderful creatures living in south Essex.

Under the Dangerous and Wild Animals Act 1976, pros-pective owners of exotic creatures need to apply to their local authority to obtain a licence to keep them.

In south Essex, Castle Point tops the list with the highest number of residents owning the most dangerous or wild animals, including rattle-snakes, cobras and a caiman alligator.

However, Iain Newby, founder of the Dangerous Wild Animal Rescue Facility in Little Wakering, believes the number of dangerous or wild animals living in Essex is actually far greater.

He said: "I find that people don't get the licences, and keep the animals illegally.

"It is not against the law to sell an animal, or to buy one. You only need a licence to keep one.

"We have rescued 20 crocodiles over the past two years. Only one of those had a licence.

"It is one of those things that if you do it properly and have the proper facilities and can give a home to one of these animals, then at least you are looking after it to the best of your ability. Without licences, people are looking after them very badly."

Mr Newby referred to Nobby the Rhesus Macaque monkey, recently sent to Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary in Ascot.

Nobby had been living at the rescue centre in Little Wakering since early January when his owner decided she could no longer keep him.

He had been living in a one-bedroom flat on the Wood-grange Estate in Southend.

Mr Newby added: "We rescued a macaque monkey that had been kept illegally in a council flat for 20 years. What kind of life is that?"

The Dangerous and Wild Animals Act was introduced to try to deal with the increasing fashion in the late 1960s and early 1970s of people keeping exotic pets - often dangerous ones - as well as people owning hybrids between wild and domestic species, such as wolfdogs and Bengal cats.

The Government hoped the legislation would safeguard the public against dangerous animals kept by individuals, as well as ensuring animals were looked after properly.

The Act includes primates, carnivores, bears, large or venomous reptiles, dangerous spiders and scorpions.

The local authority can dictate how the animal should be kept and the licence holder must have the animals covered by suitable liability insurance.

It is thought the introduction of the new law forced many people who already had such animals, but could not afford to apply for a licence and did not want their pet kept in a zoo, to release them into the wild.

Essex's exotic creatures

Brentwood: 60 ostriches

Thurrock: None

Castle Point: Five branded copperhead snakes, one western diamondback rattlesnake, two snouted cobras, one west african gaboon viper, one spectacled caiman alligator

Southend: None

Basildon: Two female capuchin monkeys

Rochford: One American alligator, but because the premises is the Dwarf rescue facility it can also hold up to three of any other wild or dangerous animals