Snake-Wrestling Tea Partier Runs for Assembly

Dr. Steve Katz, of Mohegan Lake, with his wife, children, and pets. Photo Courtesy Katz Family People have all kinds of ways, means, and reasons for choosing an occupation. Some take over the family business, others show a special talent from a young age, and many follow the money. Then there are some, like 99th Assembly District candidate Dr. Steve Katz, who find a career path after they are soiled on by a giant snake while rescuing a guy from being strangled to death.

“I went with a friend of mine to the National Zoo [in Washington],” Katz said, “And we came out of the reptile house and there was the keeper, holding on to the head of a 23 foot long reticulated python.” The snake had escaped from a hole in the top of his cage. “It would continue to twist and it would have broken the guy’s wrist, so he had to keep letting go of the head,” Katz explained. “Every time he went to get a grip again the snake would bite him.”

Katz got the dirty part of the rescue effort. “My friend Ben and I ran over there,” he said. “He grabbed the middle, and I unfortunately grabbed the part where the cloaca was, and he went to the bathroom all over me…But the three of us were able to take the snake back into a different cage.”

Rather than being horrified, Katz, a freshman at George Washington at the time, was intrigued by the experience. “That is what got me interested in this whole thing,” he said. He has now been in private veterinary practice for 21 years, but spent a good deal of time in remote locations with exotic creatures before receiving his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania.

Due to the snake wrestling match, which received a good deal of media attention, Katz met the head of the World Wildlife Fund. “He offered me and Ben a job to tag leatherback sea turtles off the coast of French Guiana,” he said. It was part of an effort to track the turtle’s migration patterns. “It was a fascinating experience and a real test of endurance.”

“Every other night I had to walk ten miles, there and back, along this desolate beach,” he recalled, “where these giant female turtles that weighed over a ton would come to lay their eggs. They really looked like dinosaurs.”

Katz’s next expedition was to the Galapagos Islands, where he once again worked with turtles. He later spent a year in Israel as the assistant director of the Hai Bar Biblical Wildlife Reserve, where he raised animals that were in the Holy Land during Biblical times, but had since become extinct in the region. “I was really taking care of amazing animals some of the rarest in the world,” he said. “I was taking care of the Arabian Oryx, where it is believed the unicorn myth came from.” He also helped bring the ostrich back to Israel. “The government of Ethiopia granted us two dozen ostrich eggs, which we incubated,” Katz said. “They ended up being eight feet tall and 350 pounds.”

Even though spending many nights far from home, Katz was always thankful for the rare opportunities. “I really appreciated that God had granted me the good fortune to be able to experience these things,” he said. “How many people get to spend months on the Galapagos Islands? It’s one of the great biological laboratories of the earth.”

After turning 50, Katz discovered another hobby and competed in his first triathlon. “Swim, bike, run,” he said with enthusiasm. “The worst sacrifice of the whole campaign is that this summer I have hardly gotten to swim.” Next summer, he plans to participate in an Olympic distance triathlon, which is a one mile swim, 25 mile bike ride, and a 10 kilometer run.

As of right now, Katz, a Mohegan Lake resident, is more focused on the race for the 99th Assembly District seat, which is being vacated by state senate candidate Greg Ball. Katz will challenge former Southeast judge James Borkowski in the Sept. 14 Republican primary ahead of the general election in November.

Politics is an entirely new experience for him, his wife, Nicole, and their four daughters. “I think we, as a family, made a decision that this is a sacrifice that we have to make for the future of our children, for the future of this country,” said Nicole.

The idea of running for public office first came to Katz two years ago; after people told him he asked a great question and handled himself well during a town hall meeting with Congressman John Hall. A proud member of the Tea Party, he is tired of seeing tax dollars go to waste. “[The Tea Party] is made up of the people who most actively want to get rid of the incumbents,” he said. “We’re paying the taxes. Now we want to see the books.”

If Katz was to be successful in his bid for office, it would take him away from his practice at the Bronx Veterinary Center, the state of the art facility he completed last May. He says that the absence won’t be too painful because even though he deals with animals, he maintains that veterinary medicine is really a people business, just like politics. “Getting to meet the constituents is what it’s all about,” he said. “I get to meet people who are like minded. People are thankful that I’m not a career politician or a lawyer, and that has been very gratifying.”

Katz says that he will bring the same level of devotion that he gave to his practice with him to Albany. “I have always been interested in the highest quality medicine, and most importantly the highest quality care for my clients,” he said. “That is what I’m going to [provide] for New York … I will bring that same level of care, concern, and compassion that I’ve been practicing for 25 years.”

For a profile of Katz’s Sept. 14 primary opponent, James Borkowski, see “Life According to Jim Borkowski” in the Aug. 19 issue of the Courier.