Handcuffed, home searched by armed agents, and hauled to jail over training dogs to avoid rattlesnakes?
In a bureaucratic tangle, Jake Molieri, 27, has been taken to the brink of business ruin. Owner of SnakeOut, Molieri trains dogs to steer clear of native rattlesnakes. However, Molieri is in breach of California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) code because he uses live native rattlers and charges for his services.
“They shut me down in the name of regulations so contradictory their own officials can’t even make sense of them, but they’ll never admit it,” Molieri contends. “Logic doesn’t matter to them. Only the regulations matter.”
CDFW insists Molieri is an outlaw unless he either conducts training using non-native, albino rattlesnakes or charges no fee. Albinos or on the house, demands the state.
Molieri has drawn a line in the legal sand. In October 2025, repped by Pacific Legal Foundation, he sued CDFW for violations of the First and Fourteenth amendments. “I don’t want anyone else tossed in jail or to have their business at risk because they got caught up in the bureaucracy.”
The Hornet’s Nest
In August 2023, getting dressed and geared up at roughly 7 a.m. for a day of dog training in northern California’s Sacramento County, Molieri heard a knock on the front door.
On the stoop stood several armed CDFW officers, backed by a search warrant. “I’ll never forget opening the door to see a guy with a pistol on his waist. I was shocked. To this day, I can’t even remember how many guys were there. It was a blur and they searched for a couple of hours. They took my place apart, told me I couldn’t train dogs with rattlesnakes, and then left.”
“I didn’t hear anything from them for about a year and a half. I did everything I could to find out about what permits I needed and why I was apparently being prosecuted. I had a fantastic attorney, Kathy Raines, but basically, we heard nothing from CDFW.”
(Citing pending litigation, CDFW declined comment on all questions related to Molieri and SnakeOut.)
Molieri had unintentionally kicked a hornet’s nest. His crime? Training dogs in rattlesnake aversion—the bread-and-butter of his business. However, according to CDFW, he was an ecological outlaw.
Raised in the outdoors with a family heavily influenced by science and hunting, Molieri obtained a university degree in biology, and built SnakeOut, a one-man-show reptile removal business. Sacramento County is home to a host of wildlife, including an abundance of snakes—most notably Northern Pacific rattlesnakes, typically ranging as adults from 2.5’ to 4’ in length.
In response to heavy demand from farmers, landowners, and urban residents along city edges, Molieri advertised publicly and began teaching snake avoidance to canines. The training service was a massive hit.
“There’s a tremendous need for the service because of the emotional trauma to dogs and families. It can result in significant financial cost or even death.”
Molieri’s training utilizes live rattlesnakes to familiarize dogs with smells, sounds, and physical appearance of snakes, backed with a minimal vibration or static pulse via an electric collar. No harm to dog or snake. Molieri has trained 700-plus dogs, including police K-9 units. (Molieri also offers training sessions for children and families.)
“We use live rattlesnakes and outfit them with a small muzzle. It’s a vital service. We teach the dogs basic avoidance and it’s the best equation for everyone with no harm to snakes or dogs. I’ve never been the only guy doing this type of training. Other companies do this and have been doing so for longer than I’ve been alive. But CDFW chose me to go after and almost ruined my life.”
Skin and Meat
It is legal to own up to two Northern Pacific rattlesnakes. It is illegal to commercialize Northern Pacific rattlesnakes. Thus, CDFW declared Molieri’s training to be unlawful because he used live, native rattlers and charged for the training.
“What the hell? That regulation is intended to keep people from catching dozens or hundreds of rattlesnakes and killing them for skin or meat or pets,” Molieri notes. “It’s got nothing to do with using a few snakes to train dogs and children on safety courses that ultimately help protect the snakes.”
(CDFW declined all questions related to SnakeOut litigation.)
Adding a layer of irony, CDFW told Molieri he could continue training and charging fees if he stopped using native rattlesnakes and switched to non-native albino rattlesnakes. In a nutshell, CDFW’s edict: Do it for free or do it with albinos.
Acquiring and caring for non-native albino rattlesnakes placed a financial burden on Molieri. Additionally, albinos are light-sensitive, significantly more dangerous to use in training, and not an assured substitute to teach dogs to avoid native Northern Pacific rattlesnakes.
“Training with native rattlesnakes and charging for the service was the heart of my business. That was how I made the bulk of my income,” Molieri explains. “But I tried my best to follow CDFW’s regulations.”
Facing business collapse, Molieri applied for a scientific collecting permit (SCP) in 2023, a 100-day wait (a mandatory timeline defined by state regs) to enable legal possession of native wildlife for educational use. However, even if he obtained the SCP, Molieri still was required by CDFW to either train dogs for free with native rattlers, or charge and use albino rattlers.
“The logic is beyond comprehension,” Molieri says. “No matter what I did, and no matter who I contacted at CDFW, every person had a different answer than the last person. Ask 10 people and get 10 different responses. The regulations are so senseless that CDFW’s own employees either produce different answers or have no answers at all.”
With no concrete boundaries regarding the regulations, no SCP permit issued, and Molieri’s SnakeOut business in limbo, state officials doubled down.
He was thrown in jail.
Snakes and Jumpsuits
Almost a year and a half after CDFW obtained a warrant and searched Molieri’s property, he arrived home in November 2024, to find two police officers waiting outside his residence. Bench warrant in hand, they told Molieri he’d missed his appointed court date.
Molieri was cuffed, arrested, and taken to Sacramento County Main Jail. “I had never received any notice, period, of a court date in way over a year since the search warrant. I’d heard nothing.”
“I asked the officers to just call my attorney, but they wouldn’t. They took my phone, put me in a car, and away we went, with nobody in my family having any idea I was arrested. It was insane. I told them, ‘Nothing ever came in the mail from USPS telling me about a court date; I never got any phone calls about court; and my attorney was never contacted.’ Didn’t matter what I said. They locked me up like a common criminal over rattlesnake aversion training. No wonder CDFW has such a hostile relationship with hunters and the outdoor community.”
Polo shirt and blue jeans atop a slim build, Molieri started a seven-hour stint beside outlaws in orange jumpsuits—repeat offenders incarcerated for robbery, assault, and drug dealing.
“The inmates were looking at me kind of curious and asking, ‘What are you in for?’”
“I’m here because of snakes. Snakes.”
The result? Facing four misdemeanors for reptile possession “violations,” from 2023, Molieri’s case was dropped. No criminal charges. Period.
“The district attorney dropped everything, but in so many ways, the stress was only just beginning,” Molieri says.
He was snared in the cogs of a bureaucratic machine that wasn’t about to let go.
Hitting the Gas
Legally, Molieri can own a Northern Pacific rattlesnake. By law, he can kill it, cook it, eat it, or turn its skin into a belt. But he can’t use the same snake to teach a paid class on safety for dogs and children. Such use is commercialization, according to CDFW.
“To CDFW, the facts don’t matter; logic doesn’t matter; reason doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the regulatory book, no matter how tangled or outdated. If you challenge their regulations, they’ll hit the gas on you and go balls to the wall.”
“I’m providing a valuable service supported by farmers, conservationists, police officers, and homeowners that keeps harm away from dogs and snakes. But now I’m forced to use albinos and put my entire business in jeopardy. Why? CDFW’s regulations that they can’t even defend.”
In 2025, still not issued an SCP permit two years beyond CDFW’s mandated 100-day application process (per Molieri, CDFW claims to be “short-staffed”), Molieri took CDFW to court, represented by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), for a breach of the First and Fourteenth amendments.
“This is an appalling case of government overreach,” says PLF attorney Brandon Beyer. “I think it speaks to the American entrepreneurial spirit that you have this guy who’s grown up around reptiles, loved the outdoors his whole life, and found a way to help everyone involved.”
“Jake’s done everything the right way, but CDFW has doubled down behind the most confused and contradictory regulations. It’s been over two years and he hasn’t even gotten word about his SCP permit. Look at the absurdity of the state’s position: Do the training voluntarily or use albinos. None of that has anything to do with protecting wildlife.”
Molieri’s contentions regarding violations of his Fourteenth Amendment rights by CDFW are based on a denial of due process and a breach of equal protection. His claims of First Amendment violations stem from his inability to give information to people willing to pay for the knowledge.
“We want to reach the discovery process and ask CDFW, ‘Specifically, how do the regulations protect native wildlife and how has Jake not done that?’” says Beyer. “Confused regulations have consequences for business owners, particularly when they have irrational government interference around them. We want to vindicate Jake’s rights and allow him to provide these services and make a living out of protecting dogs and families from prevalent rattlesnakes across northern California.”
No Choice
CDFW doesn’t remove snakes. CDFW doesn’t train dogs in rattlesnake aversion.
“There are people in genuine need regarding snakes and safety, and who do they call? It’s not CDFW, it’s businesses like mine,” Molieri emphasizes. “We teach dogs to stay away from harm, and we save families a whole lot of anguish and expense, all while helping to protect the snakes themselves. Throughout this whole twisted story, if I hadn’t have had great attorneys, I might have a criminal record—all for training dogs illegally.”
“The state says that if I want to teach a little kid a few valuable facts about a native animal, or if I want to teach some dogs to stop touching a dangerous reptile that could kill them, that’s illegal by CDFW regulations, despite it being done for decades in California. It’s absurd.”
“I never set out to sue anyone,” Molieri adds. “But when the state goes overkill by searching my house, locking me in a cell, and making my business tough to operate, I’m left with no choice. And this should never happen again to anyone else.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
