A Buffalo-area man ends his fight to reclaim Albert, his 12-foot
alligator seized in 2024
[April 10, 2026]
By MICHAEL HILL
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 (3.6-meter), 750-pound (340-kilogram) alligator and drove him
away in a van. |
In this photo provided by the New York Department of Environmental
Conservation, officers secure an 11-foot alligator for transport, March
13, 2024, Hamburg, N.Y. (New York DEC via AP, File) |
|
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.”
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