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kip595
·I actually grew up down the street from an alligator farm in Louisiana...and when I say down the street, I mean I often biked by it, knew the owners since childhood, often went there just to hang out (I am a simple country boy at heart), and when neighborhood dogs or cats disappeared, it usually meant one of the scaly fellas was roaming around.
The farm was a breeding farm and leather supplier; at one point they had a deal that something like 15% of the hatchlings went to the wild - don't know the details; it was just a generally quiet - albeit very VERY smelly - local farm. I do remember they did HAVE to document their numbers and show to the state that it was not detrimental to the wild population and actually beneficial to it.
The process, at least there, was to raise them to a certain size, somewhere around 6-8 feet IIRC, keep them separated if any got aggressive so they wouldn't attack each other and ruin their own hides, literally, and then harvest them. This generally consisted of a swift and solid whack with a short machete or cane knife to the base of the skull, severing the spinal cord. They would then be skinned, gutted, the hides tanned and the meat processed as in any slaughterhouse per FDA standards. The meat usually went to restaurants (ok, a lot was also served at neighborhood barbecues - it's really not bad at all, but you've got to cook it right or it's chewy!) and the hides went to various leather buyers, which did range from general wholesalers to some companies purchasing 'perfect' hides individually for high end retail. It's very uncommon these days for any retailer to use non-farmed hides from creatures like this, as the scars they accumulate in the wild render them largely useless, even for things like straps - why hunt down a 15 footer you can get five watch straps total out of when you can raise an 8 footer and get two pair of boots, half a dozen handbags and clutches, and dozens of straps out of?
Point is, alligator is sustainable and intentionally sustainably sourced.
I remember at the age of ten or so riding with my mom and taking my uncle, who worked at the farm for a few years, to the hospital to get part of a gator tooth taken out of his hand because one of the big scaly's had taken a chomp at him and the tooth had snapped when my uncle hit it with the cane knife. It apparently didn't warrant an ambulance in anyone's opinion, but they did give him the rest of the day off.
Annnd now that I've finished writing that, boy did I have a quirky childhood!
The farm was a breeding farm and leather supplier; at one point they had a deal that something like 15% of the hatchlings went to the wild - don't know the details; it was just a generally quiet - albeit very VERY smelly - local farm. I do remember they did HAVE to document their numbers and show to the state that it was not detrimental to the wild population and actually beneficial to it.
The process, at least there, was to raise them to a certain size, somewhere around 6-8 feet IIRC, keep them separated if any got aggressive so they wouldn't attack each other and ruin their own hides, literally, and then harvest them. This generally consisted of a swift and solid whack with a short machete or cane knife to the base of the skull, severing the spinal cord. They would then be skinned, gutted, the hides tanned and the meat processed as in any slaughterhouse per FDA standards. The meat usually went to restaurants (ok, a lot was also served at neighborhood barbecues - it's really not bad at all, but you've got to cook it right or it's chewy!) and the hides went to various leather buyers, which did range from general wholesalers to some companies purchasing 'perfect' hides individually for high end retail. It's very uncommon these days for any retailer to use non-farmed hides from creatures like this, as the scars they accumulate in the wild render them largely useless, even for things like straps - why hunt down a 15 footer you can get five watch straps total out of when you can raise an 8 footer and get two pair of boots, half a dozen handbags and clutches, and dozens of straps out of?
Point is, alligator is sustainable and intentionally sustainably sourced.
I remember at the age of ten or so riding with my mom and taking my uncle, who worked at the farm for a few years, to the hospital to get part of a gator tooth taken out of his hand because one of the big scaly's had taken a chomp at him and the tooth had snapped when my uncle hit it with the cane knife. It apparently didn't warrant an ambulance in anyone's opinion, but they did give him the rest of the day off.
Annnd now that I've finished writing that, boy did I have a quirky childhood!
