“I was devastated, it was too much to handle,” Albert the alligator’s owner, Tony Cavallaro, says.
Thousands of people have shown their support for a New York man's quest to get back his beloved family pet, Albert, a 750-pound blind alligator who was seized by officials because his owner's license expired several years ago.
Tony Cavallaro lived with his 11-foot alligator named Albert Edward in his home in Hamburg for the past 34 years, after purchasing him at a reptile show in Ohio in 1990 when the alligator was a newborn.
Authorities with the Department of Environmental Conservation seized the animal, however, saying he was being kept illegally because the owner’s license expired back in 2021.
“I was devastated, it was too much to handle,” Cavallaro says.
It took 10 men to carry the alligator from Cavallaro's home to a van. In addition to being blind, authorities say Albert has spinal injuries.
The New York man says he could not believe he was about to lose his best friend.
“As soon as they told me that they were going to take Albert I was blown away. I didn’t know what to say,” Cavallaro says.
On a Change.org petition called “Help us return Albert the alligator to his owner,” Cavallaro says he took better care of Albert than "than most people take care of their kids."
He built a $150,000 addition to his home where Albert lived and had his own swimming pool. Albert enjoyed raw chicken and playing with his stuffed dinosaur. Cavallaro even brushed the gator’s teeth.
Cavallaro felt it was safe enough for his mom to be by Albert’s pool.
Even with a license, public contact with Albert is prohibited, but Cavallaro does not deny that people have been in the pool to take pictures.
“They were standing in the shallow end, Albert’s down at the bottom, she took a picture and they got out, they didn’t go swimming with him,” Cavallaro says. “Albert is a gentle giant, you couldn’t make him bite you.”
In the meantime, Albert is with a licensed caretaker, but Cavallaro is hoping he will be reunited with his best friend.
"I will have a court date when they provide it," he wrote on the petition. "I ask it all of my friends and people who love Albert will support me when this date comes available and if you can join me at the Hamburg town court to help me fight them to get him back."
As of Tuesday, the petition to reunite Cavallaro and Albert has amassed more than 116,000 signatures.
