Florida Bans Unnaturally Posed Stuffed Baby Crocodilians

Sometimes I start one of these things but then, for a variety of reasons, don’t finish it. Maybe something better came up, maybe the research was taking longer than expected, or maybe a shiny object distracted me. But I usually don’t delete the draft because hey, maybe one day I’ll go back and finish it. So there they sit in the draft folder. Over time I’ve accumulated a few of these, and by “a few” I mean 417. I’m now going back to finish one I started in 2015. Back then, I had just learned that Florida had amended its fish-and-wildlife regulations to prohibit the sale of “any crocodilian product manufactured in the form of a stuffed baby crocodilian less than three feet in length … that depicts an unnatural crocodilian body or body part positioning.” Fla. Admin. Code, Rule 68A-25.002(2)(c) (2014). So you can see why I was excited. In the original draft, I wrote, “I apologize for not bringing this to your attention sooner,” and I do even more so today. But it is also still true that…