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PARK CITY — The reticulated python, native to the rainforests of southeast Asia and Indonesia, is the longest snake species in the world. Green anacondas grow heavier and girthier but the longest reticulated python ("retic" for short) on record in a zoological setting measured nearly 29 feet long and weighed 320 pounds.
Park City is most notable today for plentiful snow and winter sports; visitors can see and experience a bobsled run and ski jumps from the 2002 Winter Olympic Games held in Utah. The wintry mountain town is also home to Wildfire Retics. Weston Wenner is a collector and breeder of massive tropical snakes — snakes unaccustomed to brumating (a reptile form of hibernation) in cold winter climates such as Utah's.
Fortunately for Wenner's collection, a climate-controlled barn houses the snakes comfortably year-round. During warmer months, Wenner's snakes get outdoor exercise on his very large and scenic back lawn.
If these tropical giants being housed in Park City isn't ironic enough, Wenner's wife Jessica Burton is gradually overcoming a fear of snakes.
"When we were dating, I said to myself that if this is going to happen, I've got to get over this debilitation around the snakes," said Burton. "I set up a camping chair and would come out and sit with them. One time, over three hours surrounded by these walls of snakes, I stopped crying and shaking."
Wenner grew up in northwestern Ohio and has recollections of catching bullfrogs in his family's pond while in the first grade. While lizards and snakes were less common, Wenner would catch anything he found and hide it from his parents while he learned to care for it; his father to this day has a fear of snakes.
"Whenever my father comes to visit I point to the snakes and tell him this is his fault — had he simply let me have a few snakes when I was a kid, I may have gotten it all out of my system," Wenner said.
Wenner attended college in south Florida. When he moved out of the dorms for the first time and had his own place, some friends kept a ball python in their apartment.
Over time, Wenner and his friends realized he was caring for the snake more than they were, and better. They offered it to him, and he accepted.
Shortly thereafter, Wenner discovered online reptile message boards, and being able to discuss his passion with others fueled it further. Two snakes became 10, and the various snake species he desired became larger.
"At one point a couple of Burmese pythons led to keeping hots (venomous species). I kept everything from copperheads to cobras, and I had gaboon vipers," recalled Wenner.
At that time reticulated pythons were still largely imports to the United States. Today, importing them is no longer allowed, and they are very expensive. Those he wanted were typically $6,000 or more, keeping them out of reach for Wenner.
By 2013 Wenner was living in Colorado, drawn there in part by the legalization of cannabis and the potential business opportunities surrounding that.
Wenner purchased an adult male retic for $600 in Colorado, and over the next year it grew by over 8 feet. Four years later a winter snowstorm knocked out power at Wenner's house while he was on vacation and that retic perished in the cold; a friend had failed to check on the house as promised.
By this time Facebook snake groups were plentiful and Wenner's search for a replacement snake exposed him to a much wider world of retics than he had known previously. The desire to purchase one turned into owning several.
Wenner's medical cannabis business was doing well, and he had disposable income.
In 2017, newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum. The memorandum, under the direction of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, ordered federal authorities to not prosecute cannabis operations that were becoming legal or decriminalized in several U.S. states.
The FBI descended upon Colorado and investigated medical growers and distributors of cannabis. Wenner's grow facility and home were raided; Wenner admits he grew more plants than he was authorized to grow under Colorado law.
That fact led to multiple federal and state felony charges. In addition, nearly everything Wenner owned was seized by the federal government, except for his snakes and dogs.
At this point the pythons were a hobby, something Wenner collected. With nothing to do each day and almost every other hobby and possession seized, Wenner turned his attention to caring for those snakes in the best ways possible.
Collecting snakes led to breeding snakes and a new passion was born. And a new business — Wildfire Retics.
Along the way, Wenner amassed a large following on multiple social media platforms.
Wenner pleaded guilty to one federal felony charge and eventually moved to Utah in 2020. He initially helped run a Utah hemp farm. Wenner still consults with legal cannabis operations in multiple states, in addition to other business ventures.
As for Wildfire, this past year was Wenner's most successful breeding year to date — 152 neonate snakes born and 100% of his pairings produced. In an average year, he sells 12 or more retics to owners here in Utah.
With he and his wife expecting their first child, Wenner is in the process of scaling back his breeding operation. He has already sold most of his breeding adults.
He has been careful, though, to keep those pairs that will allow him to ramp back up quickly when ready. Wenner said there is only one goal: breeding a pure line of a particular retic locality, that he has yet to achieve.
At a reptile expo in Sandy this month, Wenner presented some of his snakes to an audience in addition to speaking to potential customers. Wenner always has adult snakes on hand when selling newborns so people can see firsthand what a commitment they are considering.
Many reptiles require a time commitment that is significantly longer than that of dogs and cats. Owning a snake that is virtually guaranteed to exceed 10 feet in length (males are typically much smaller than females), and could reach 20 feet adds to that commitment.
In addition to that final breeding goal, Wenner has yet to travel to the native range of retics and find them in the wild. He's hoping his wife and others can be convinced to enjoy some time in Bali at some point, while he and some friends disappear deep into the jungle to look for snakes.
