Tony Cavallaro is a lifelong reptile lover who’s cared for caimans, lizards, and at one time a monitor. In 1990, Tony went to a reptile show in Ohio and met then two-month-old Albert the alligator. Since then, the two have been family. Tony had a $120,000 addition built on his house to give Albert heated floors, a filtering indoor pond with waterfall and spa jet, tropical plants, and plentiful pillows and stuffed toys for Albert to snuggle with. (Yes, the alligator likes to snuggle!) Tony was also diligent about maintaining his license to keep Albert at home, but the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) made changes in 2020 that Tony found confusing. Though he tried to get help with renewing the license and keeping in compliance with the new housing requirements, the license expired in 2021. But it wasn’t until three years later in 2024 that the DEC dramatically seized Albert and took him away. Tony immediately sued DEC to get Albert back — his baby of 34 years — but the case has stalled and the bills keep mounting, so Tony has now decided to give up the fight.
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 [NY] suburb of Hamburg in March 2024. The officers sedated the 12-foot (3.6 meter), 750-pound (340-kilogram) alligator and drove him away in a van.
Albert, who lived in an indoor swimming pool, eventually ended up in a sanctuary in Texas.
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.”
Cavallaro said he has not seen Albert since the animal was taken away, though he has seen photographs.
“I’m not at peace. I don’t think I ever will be,” he said. “I’m very angry about the whole thing.”
Do I generally think that having an alligator (or other wild animal) as a pet is a bad idea? Yes, I do. And do I believe strongly in official regulations that serve to protect animals and humans so they live together safely? Absolutely. Plus there’s no question that Tony should not have allowed people into the pool with Albert (even though the people were family and close friends and they elected to take the risk). Here’s where I’m waffling: Albert has lived in captivity his entire life. For 34 years, he had his own rockin’ bachelor pad pond. How is he adapting in the Texas sanctuary, hmm?? Is the sanctuary solely for alligators who were formerly pets, or has Albert been dealt a crash course in the alligator-eat-alligator world of his wild kin? What I’m trying to say is, there’s the broad sense of the right thing to do (don’t keep wild animals as pets), but there’s also looking at specific cases and determining what’s best for this individual animal based on how he’s lived up until now. What’s more, I can’t shake the feeling of something fishy going on with the way the DEC took action. Why the three year delay between the license expiring and the agents moving in? And if the violation of letting people get too close to Albert outweighed the license issue anyway, then why wasn’t Albert seized many years ago? Of course Albert could be living his best life right now, for all we know, and I hope he is. Even so, I feel for Tony. 34 years of companionship is not easy to get over.
Obviously I’m getting all verklempt because this story reminds me of Wally, the emotional support alligator who went missing two years ago after traveling out-of-state with his person. I still think about that kid. So does my mother: everyone now and then she’ll ask out of the blue, in a quiet voice, “Did… did they ever find Wally?” And somberly I have to reply, “No.”
Photos via Facebook and Instagram/Tony Cavallaro