HAMBURG, NY — The owner of an alligator recently seized by wildlife officials in New York is fighting for its return. He says the reptile he named Albert, and with whom he has shared a home for more than 30 years, is a gentle giant who poses no danger to anyone.
Officers met Tony Cavallaro in the driveway of his suburban Buffalo home a week ago with a search warrant before tranquilizing the 11-foot, 700-pound alligator, taping its mouth and driving it away in a car. van.
Cavallaro’s permit to keep Albert, who is 34 years old, had expired in 2021, the Department of Environmental Conservation said. But even if the agreement had been extended, Cavallaro would have let other people pet the alligator and even go into the pool with it, which was grounds for its removal under rules for keeping animals classified as dangerous, according to the report. the Department.
Cavallaro, 64, sees Albert differently. His alligator was born and raised in captivity and has never shown signs of aggression toward people or other animals, he said. He remembered finding Albert on the dog bed with his dog when the alligator was smaller.
“He’s just a big baby,” Cavallaro said Tuesday, showing photos of Albert holding a stuffed alligator between his teeth and resting his chin on a pile of pillows.
Cavallaro has hired a lawyer in hopes of getting Albert back, and his efforts are being supported by his own neighbors as well as strangers on social media. An online petition has been signed by more than 120,000 people and fans have created ‘Free Albert’ T-shirts and buttons.
A friend even wrote a song for charity: “Oh Albert, please come home,” the friend sings while strumming a guitar in a video posted to Facebook.
Cavallaro has lived with Albert for more than half his life after purchasing the alligator at a reptile show in Ohio when he was two months old, and considers him an “emotional support animal.”
He spent $120,000 on a custom addition to his home, designed around Albert, complete with underfloor heating, an indoor filtering pond with a waterfall and spa jet, tropical plants and a bar.
Now it’s difficult to get into the room, Cavallaro said, as he picked up Albert’s pile of pillows that he said officers had thrown aside and placed them back on the carpet where the alligator liked to lie.
“It’s so empty,” said Cavallaro, who was not told where the alligator had been taken.
Cavallaro acknowledges that acquaintances and their children have also been up close and personal with Albert, posing for photos and petting him, and occasionally getting into the water. But he says Albert is so affectionate that he rushes to the edge of the pool to greet Cavallaro’s 84-year-old mother when she visits. She always looked at Albert when Cavallaro went on vacation, he said.
“She sat with him in his room and read while he laid his head on her foot,” he said.
The permit became an issue following a change in regulations on the ownership of dangerous animals passed by the Department of Environmental Conservation in 2020. After Cavallaro’s permit expired in 2021, he failed to keep the holding area compliant to ensure the alligator would not pose a danger to the animals. the public, the agency said.
Cavallaro said he had unsuccessfully requested clarification to renew the license and believes he should have adhered to the old regulations.
Owning Albert is the culmination of a lifelong interest in reptiles, said Cavallaro, who previously owned caimans, similar to an alligator, a monitor and a menagerie of lizards.
“It’s just a fascination. “I love these animals and have learned a lot about them,” he said.
He disputes the DEC’s claim that Albert “has numerous health problems, including blindness in both eyes and spinal complications.”
The alligator, which lives on a diet of raw chicken and pork chops supplemented with vitamins, is under the care of a veterinarian, including for cataracts, but Cavallaro said he is not blind. He said there was nothing wrong with the alligator’s spine before it was taken away.
DEC officials declined to say where Albert is being held. In a statement, the agency said only that it is working with “a licensed caregiver who will house and care for the animal until it can be properly transported for continued care.”
It is unknown how many alligators are kept as pets in the U.S., but conservationists regularly report that they are called upon to rescue abandoned reptiles from parks and creeks. Officials believe a lethargic 4-foot alligator found in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Lake in February 2023 was likely an abandoned pet.
In Buffalo, animal control officers tried for days to remove a caiman from a creek in 2014, but eventually succeeded.