California’s ban on sales of alligator boots drawing a lawsuit from Louisiana
California’s new law banning the importation and sale of alligator and crocodile skins could be blocked by a pair of lawsuits, including one that’s expected to come from the state of Louisiana.
The ban goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020, and makes it a misdemeanor to import or sell alligator or crocodile products.
A consortium of businesses that “represent every step in the chain of commerce for alligators and crocodiles” filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of California to prevent the ban from taking effect.
The lawsuit alleges the businesses face “a wide range of irreparable harms” from the law.
“Indeed, some irreparable harms are already taking effect in anticipation of the impending trade ban, including canceled orders, lost business transactions and sales, and halted or dramatically curtailed production,” according to the complaint. “Other imminent irreparable harms include liquidated inventories, ‘fire sales’ of products, job eliminations, cancellations of entire business lines, dissolutions of businesses, and potential relocation of several California plaintiffs outside the state.”
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office also are planning to sue California to stop the ban on alligator and crocodile skins, according to The New Orleans Advocate.
The lawsuit could be filed as early as this week, according to the Advocate.
“California is 30 percent of the alligator market in the world,” Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet said, according to the Advocate. “If we lose that, these (hunters and farmers) are going to be in trouble. And California is just the first of the dominoes to fall.”
Alligator skins are a multi-million-dollar industry in Louisiana, according to the state.
American alligators once were an endangered species, but today there are nearly 2 million alligators in the wild in Louisiana alone, something the state credits to alligator farming.
Cole Garrett, general counsel for Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, said California’s ban will affect private landowners’ conservation efforts for a host of species.
“There is a harm on our ability to manage the species as a whole,” Garrett said.
California technically has banned importing alligator products, such as boots, coats, and bags, for decades. However, state lawmakers crafted, and continued to extend, an exemption that allowed importations to continue. That exemption expires at the end of this year.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers introduced bills that would have allowed the importing and sale of alligator and crocodile skins to continue, but those bills died in committee.
Animal activist groups such as Social Compassion in Legislation and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals celebrated the end of such sales in California.
“(High-end retailers) can’t hawk their skins in California anymore, and it’s time they stopped selling them elsewhere, too,” PETA said in a statement.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 2:30 PM.
