Will alligator seized in New York be reunited with owner? Over 100K sign petition

Thousands of people have signed a petition asking the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to return an alligator kept in a residential swimming pool in Erie County to his owner of more than three decades.

State officials last week seized an ailing alligator named Albert from a Buffalo area home where the reptile was being kept illegally. DEC police officers confiscated the 750-pound, 11-foot-long alligator last Wednesday from a residence in Hamburg, located just south of Buffalo and approximately 90 minutes west of Rochester.

The home's owner built an addition and installed an in-ground swimming pool for the 34-year-old alligator and allowed people, including children, to get into the water with the reptile, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The alligator has "blindness in both eyes" and spinal complications, among other health issues. The reptile was sent to a licensed caretaker until a place is found where it can receive permanent care, according to the DEC.

In an online petition at change.org, Albert's owner Tony Cavallaro said that he has cared for the alligator for more than three decades and in that time, possessed all of the needed state permits to possess an alligator until the past few years, when he said the guidelines changed.

"I tried renewing it when they changed their rules and had questions to ask," Cavallaro said in the petition. "They ignored my emails and phone calls to make sure I did everything right even though I should be grandfathered in."

He said he was particularly bothered by how DEC officials collected Albert from his home last week, saying that he felt he was being treated "like a criminal."

"I am very upset and angry about this whole incident," he wrote.

More than 100,000 people have signed the petition.

"I took care of him better than most people take care of their kids," he in the online petition.

Cavallaro, who said he got Albert as a hatchling in 1990, said he treated the alligator like it was his kid and that he never put anyone in danger.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Will Albert the alligator be reunited with owner in NY? Petition started