SAN ANTONIO — The 136 pythons and more than 400 rodents seized from a Southeast Side home earlier this month are now property of the City of San Antonio.

It was one of the largest seizures in Animal Care Services history.

Since the man agreed to hand them over, he will not be responsible for paying for the care the snakes and rodents have been receiving over the past week. ACS estimates the costs have totaled about $20,000.

ACS says since they mainly deal with dogs, cats, and livestock, caring for them has been quite the undertaking.

ACS has been receiving a lot of help from outside experts and from the San Antonio Zoo.

They believe the man was breeding them and because of the conditions a number of them are sick.

Cruelty charges are pending.

"The snakes, we are already reaching out, we've kind of been holding off because we didn't have formal custody of them yet, but we have been putting feelers out,” said ACS Assistant Director Shannon Sims. “It looks like we have some live release options for pretty much all of the snakes and the rats. Surprisingly there are a lot of rat rescues in the nation. So right now we've got a positive outlook on being able to get all of those animals out.”