A New York man has dropped his legal battle to regain his alligator, Albert, which was seized by the Department of Environmental Conservation after being kept illegally for over 30 years. The owner cited the exhausting legal process and financial burden as reasons for ending the fight.
In this photo provided by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC officers secure an 11-foot alligator for transport after it was seized from a home where it was being kept illegally in Hamburg, N.
Y., March 13, 2024. Tony Cavallaro, whose alligator Albert was seized, is suing the state Department of Environmental Conservation in an effort to get him back, saying the agency was wrong not to renew a license for the pet he'd raised for more than 30 years.
An Upstate New York man who had his alligator seized after sharing a home for more than three decades has given up his court fight to get back the reptile he affectionately named Albert. Tony Cavallaro sued the state Department of Environmental Conservation after officers met him with a warrant in the driveway of his home in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg in March 2024. The officers sedated the 12-foot , 750-pound alligator and drove him away in a van.
Cavallaro sued over the state’s denial of a license to keep Albert. But the 66-year-old said Thursday that the legal action had consumed his life for two years. With no quick end in sight, he decided last month that he couldn’t deal with the exhausting battle anymore. “They were never going to give me this alligator back, and it was going to cost me a ton more money. Another year and a half — at least — of stress,” Cavallaro said in a phone interview.
Cavallaro’s license to keep Albert had expired in 2021, according to the department. But even if it had been renewed, Cavallaro had let other people pet the alligator and even get in the pool with him, providing grounds for the removal under the rules for keeping animals classified as dangerous, the agency said after the seizure. The seized alligator had blindness in both eyes and spinal complications, among other health issues, according to the state. Cavallaro has insisted that Albert was “just a big baby” who had never shown signs of aggression. He bought the alligator at an Ohio reptile show when it was two months old and considered him an “emotional support animal.”
“I’m not at peace. I don’t think I ever will be,” he said. “I’m very angry about the whole thing.”Albert, who lived in an indoor swimming pool, eventually ended up in a sanctuary in Texas.
Our Bright Spot shines on one cat with nine lives.
State Sen. Jeremy Cooney is pushing legislation that would expand when the state is responsible for vehicle damage caused by potholes on state roads.
Alligator Seizure Lawsuit Illegal Pet New York
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