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Here is a case study about pointless legislation which most attorneys could never do justice to (unless they are 200+ years old).

The case involved an actual murder of an alligator.* A Georgia citizen killed an alligator to protect his child and other children because it was near where they walked on the way to their school. He was charged with killing an animal on the 'threatened species' list.

Alligators were declared an endangered species in 1967. For additional protection they were also put on the CITES list as well. Then they increased tremendously in numbers until now there are over a million alligators, which is about the number there were 200 years ago.

So in 1987 they were taken off that CITES list and put on Appendix II of the 'CITES threatened species list'. However don't let the title of the list fool you. Alligators are not threatened at all but they (right) look a lot like the American Crocodile, Crocodylus acutus, to the average person and those are still on the Endangered Species list. They kept the American Alligator on the list only to prevent the accidental deaths of Crocodiles and CITES even admits that is the only reason they are on the list.

1. However American Crocodile's only live on the very southern tip of Florida so saving Crocodiles by protecting the entire crocodilian family including all Alligators is probably the worst case of profiling that I've ever seen.

2. It's a violation of our Constitutional right to protect ourselves.

3. You will undoubtedly agree with me when I unequivocally state that protecting Alligators that want to eat small children in Georgia because they look like South Florida Croc's is exactly that. A big croc.**

The irony of it is that now there are so many Alligators in the state of Florida that the State of Florida allows people to hunt Alligators. Which defeats the whole purpose of the legislation but that is not the end of it.

The American Crocodile is not endangered at all in Central America and they are genetically identical to the Southern Florida Crocodiles. Since poachers could claim that innocent Florida Crocodile pelts were really imported pelts from Central America the importing of Crocodiles pelts from Central America is also outlawed.

Since about 170 countries adhere to the CITES treaty all those countries also made importing Crocodile pelts from Central America a major crime with penalties up to eight years in prison.***

Nobody can tell me why importing Crocodiles skins into Bulgaria affects the murder rate of innocent Florida Crocodiles.

So this is another big Croc.

In fact CITES is now spurring on crime in the form of 'Crocodile pelt laundrying'.

In a recent year Hungary reported exporting over 3,000 Croc skins and almost none were imported. The last time I looked they did not have any Crocodile farms in Hungary so they must be smuggling them in and then exporting them as legit Croc pelts.

Also, we now we have a huge population explosion of Crocodiles in Central America because of the CITES treaty. There are millions of starving Central American children who could be fed if only their fathers were allowed to hunt Crocodiles instead of it being the other way around with those hungry Crocs eating the hungry children.

That is not the end of it. In order to escape overcrowding at home Crocodiles in Central America climb on logs that drift out to sea. Then the clockwise circulation of the Caribbean Ocean delivers them on the shores of South Florida as regularly as it does Cubans on inner tubes.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we attempt to save Crocodiles.

*Alligators were one of my favorites to use as examples. Today lawyers are refereed to as sharks but 200 years ago lawyers were called alligators. Also we used to hunt them as I describe on the lower part of this page.

**I don't even think Crocodiles belong in the United States and they shouldn't be there in the first place.

The cold snaps in Southern Florida probably kill all those Crocs about every 100 or so years. Their location in Florida combined with the fact that they are genetically identical to Central American crocs indicates that all Florida Crocs are recent arrivals from Central America and not even endogenous to the United States. That makes them illegal aliens who should be sent back home.

*** EU countries are considering a new agreement that would allow tourists to bring home a small amount of crocodile skin products for personal use without the need for permits. TAT