“My poor alligator, he doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s such a gentle giant, it’s unbelievable."
An upstate New York man is fighting to regain the custody of his 34-year-old pet alligator named Albert after employees with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation seized the animal at his Hamburg home last week.
Tony Cavallaro, 64, has owned Albert since he was just two months old, when he purchased the now 12-foot, 750-pound gator at an Ohio reptile show. Albert was born and has spent his entire life in captivity, and Cavallaro considers him to be an emotional support animal. He recently retired Albert to a $120,000 custom addition to his house after years of showing him at educational shows, complete with an indoor pond, heated floors, and specialized windows and lighting.
However, Cavallaro's license to keep Albert expired a few years ago in 2021, and due to a change in animal ownership laws he was met with resistance to renew it. Then, on March 13, the agency showed up at his door with a warrant due to claims that he had "allowed members of the public to get into the water to pet the unsecured alligator" and that he was "seriously endangering the public."
For his part, Cavallaro doesn't deny the allegations but maintains that Albert is harmless. What's more, he objects to agents treating him like a criminal and traumatizing Albert, who was sedated and had his mouth taped shut before loading him into a van where he was taken to a "licensed caretaker who will house and care for the animal until it can be properly transported for permanent care," according to the Washington Post.
“My poor alligator, he doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s such a gentle giant, it’s unbelievable,” Cavallaro told the New York Post in an interview. “Who knows what kind of damage they could have done to him.”
“They make me look like a drug lord, like Escobar, that’s what they treated it like," Cavallaro explained. "What reason do they have to go to this extreme? They had full body armor two assault shotguns … It looks like a DEA drug bust of some kingpin. They looked like a SWAT team for a terrorist attack."
But Cavallaro has the support of the community rallied around him, and an online petition to reunite the pair currently boasts more than 120,000 signatures. Supporters have also been helping circulate “Free Albert” T-shirts and bumper stickers to help spread the word about Cavallaro’s legal battle.
"[Albert] loves company, and I guess I let my compassion get in the way of the law. But I have never endangered nobody,” Cavallaro lamented. He added that he never let anyone who he didn’t know and trust near his longtime pet, who he describes as having a "huge personality" and enjoys cuddling.
"If you met him you’d love him … He just loves people. He loves everybody. Not to eat, but to be with," Cavallaro said. After Albert was taken, he recalled a friend saying to him: "You think I’d get the pool with an alligator that size if I didn’t know for a fact that he was gentle as can be?"
