Cassidy, Louisiana delegation defend sustainable Louisiana alligator industry

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Garret Graves (R-LA), Ralph Abraham (R-LA), Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Clay Higgins (R-LA) expressed their support for AB 527, a proposed measure in the California legislature to remove a January 1, 2020 prohibition of the importation, possession or sale of alligator and crocodile products in their state.

The members of the Louisiana delegation urged the California Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife Chairman Eduardo Garcia to support the removal of the impending ban, explaining the important role the sale of alligator products has in funding conservation efforts for the species.

“The sustainable-use of the alligator resource and a viable trade in alligator products are both fundamental to Louisiana’s successful approach to wildlife and habitat conservation and to our local economies and cultural heritage,” the senators and representatives said in the letter. “Therefore, in reality, the impending prohibition on the sale of alligator products in California beginning in 2020 will serve to undermine, not advance, alligator conservation, at great collateral cost to our state’s far-reaching wildlife and habitat conservation programs and to our local economy and cultures.”