This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Read update here.

Why are Louisiana legislators lobbying in California? Louisiana businesses make millions of dollars selling the stolen skins of alligators and crocodiles to high-end merchants in Beverly Hills. Now, lobbyists are backing Assembly Bill 527 to delay a ban on selling these products in the state.

Louisiana businesses make over $50 million per year selling alligator and crocodile products. Ranchers steal 350,000 alligator eggs and kill 250,000 alligators while trappers seize over 28,000 wild alligators from their swamp homes every year. Previous investigations have revealed alligators and crocodiles butchered alive with box cutters, while they writhe in pain and slowly bleed out. The only way to stop them is to reduce availability and demand for their products. Help us kill this bill to prevent alligators and crocodiles from becoming handbags, belts, boots, and jackets!

California originally outlawed the sale of alligator and crocodile parts in 1970. However, due to lobbying by the state of Louisiana along with crocodile and alligator breeders and hunters, temporary exemptions to the ban have been granted and extended to 2020. With this exemption due to expire, Louisiana lobbyists are scrambling to prop up their cruel and outdated industry.

We need your help to stop bill author Assemblyman Randy Voepel, Louisiana lobbyists, California Retailers Association, and Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce from repealing our state’s upcoming ban on selling alligator and crocodile products. If passed, AB 527 would keep the door open to millions of reptiles being killed for frivolous fashion items until 2030.

There is no need to import animal skins when there are so many animal-friendly options available! Now more than ever, Beverly Hills merchants have no excuse for animal abuse.

What YOU Can Do:

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Read update here.