A blind alligator weighing more than 700lb and stretching more than 10ft in length was recently seized from a home in upstate New York, potentially setting up a legal battle between the animal’s owner and authorities.
The state’s environmental conservation department on 12 March seized the 30-year-old, 750lb and 11ft-long alligator called Albert Edward from a home in the Erie county community of Hamburg.
According to authorities, the owner neither had a proper permit for the animal nor properly secured it. The owner reportedly installed an in-ground swimming pool for the purposes of keeping the alligator and allowed people to get in the water to pet the otherwise unsecured animal.
The owner had previously held a license from the state’s environmental conservation department for the alligator. However, the license expired in 2021 and was not renewed.
Authorities, after they seized the animal, discovered that the alligator had various health issues, including blindness in both eyes and spinal complications. The alligator was then turned over to a licensed caretaker for temporary housing and care until the animal could be set up with a more permanent arrangement, authorities said.
Speaking to the New York Times, Albert Edward’s owner, 64-year-old Tony Cavallaro, said that visitors would only briefly get in the pool to pose with the animal, often when the alligator was sleeping.
“I did everything by the book the whole time,” Cavallaro said, adding: “They changed the rules, and I should be grandfathered in. I shouldn’t have to abide by them.
“He’s always had a problem with his eyes,” Cavallaro said of Albert Edward, explaining to the Times that he bought the alligator at a reptile show in Columbus, Ohio, in 1990. Cavallaro said he owned more than 100 reptiles at one point in his life.
In a statement reported by the Times, New York’s environmental conservation department said it was illegal to own an alligator in the state unless one has a special license.
The department said the license “authorizes an individual with appropriate training, experience and facilities with required safeguards to possess animals listed as dangerous animals for scientific, educational, exhibition, zoological, or propagation purposes”.
The license does not allow possession of any dangerous animal as a pet, the addition of new or replacement dangerous animals without an accompanying license amendment, nor the possession of dangerous animals at a facility which cannot ensure the health and safety of the public or indigenous fish and wildlife populations.
Yet authorities’ information about the case against Cavallaro has done little to stem a tide of public sympathy which has greeted him since Albert Edward was taken from him.
A petition called “Help us return Albert the alligator to his owner” had been signed by about 95,400 individuals as of Sunday.
Writing on the petition page, Cavallaro said, “As everyone has probably already heard, the DEC and [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] took Albert away from me saying that I put people in harm’s way with him. Every one who has met Albert or knows Albert knows that this is not true. I took care of him better than most people take care of their kids. They changed the rules [two] years ago about what you need to do to have an alligator. I’ve had him 34 years and abided by all of them and renewed my permit annually as required.”
He added: “I tried renewing it when they changed their rules and had questions to ask. They ignored my emails and phone calls to make sure I did everything right even though I should be grandfathered in. I will have a court date when they provide it. I ask … all of my friends and people who love Albert [to] 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.”
