Weird Laws in Alabama: Real, Repealed, and Misquoted

Alabama Code § 13A-12-5 makes it a criminal offense to promote, engage in, or be employed at a bear wrestling match. Training a bear for wrestling is also covered. Violation is a Class B felony.

Bear wrestling events involved trained bears and paying audiences, primarily at fairs and roadhouse venues across the South. The practice was real enough that the legislature addressed it with a dedicated statute rather than relying on general animal cruelty law.

The statute sits in Title 13A, Chapter 12, alongside gambling and related offenses. Alabama treats bear wrestling as a conduct crime, not only as an animal welfare issue.

For most of the twentieth century, Alabama law capped beer at 6% alcohol by volume. The practical effect: most Belgian ales, double IPAs, barleywines, and high-gravity imports could not be legally sold in Alabama. Distributors did not stock them because retailers could not carry them.

A grassroots campaign called Free the Hops, founded in 2004, organized the push to change this. The Alabama Legislature passed legislation in 2009 lifting the ABV cap and also removing a 16-ounce bottle limit that had blocked the sale of large-format craft beers.

The claim: placing salt on a railroad track in Alabama is a capital offense punishable by death. The first part is grounded in reality; the second part is not.

Alabama Code, Title 37 covers railroads and public utilities. Deliberately placing materials on tracks in a way that endangers train operations is a felony. The historical context is practical: salt and other attractants were placed near tracks to lure livestock, causing derailments and animal collisions.

Nowhere in the Alabama code is this a capital crime. Capital punishment in Alabama applies to aggravated murder. The underlying prohibition is real; the attached penalty is not.