Albert the Alligator’s owner an emotional wreck after NY takes 750-pound live-in pet away: ‘I don’t sleep’

NY Post ^ | May 19, 2024 | Alex Oliveira

[Red Badger]

Taking away his best friend was a cold-blooded thing to do.

An upstate New York man who kept a 750-pound pet alligator in his house is an emotional wreck after government agents hauled his pal away – and he sees the same heartbreak in Albert’s scaly face.

“I know his look, and that happy face that you see is not there no more,” an emotional and sleepless Tony Cavallaro told The Post. “He looks very lost and very distraught.

Cavallaro raised Albert since he was a hatchling 34 years ago, an elaborate pen in his home to house the gator.

“I see the look in his face,” Cavallaro said about the blind, 34-year-old alligator that was shipped to a new home in Texas this month. “Reptiles express a lot, they have as much expression as humans, you just don’t see it a lot because there’s scales.”

In March, Albert was taken from Cavallaro’s home in Hamburg, outside of Buffalo – where he kept him in an elaborate pen that cost more than $120,000 to install. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) raided the abode after an anonymous allegation that Cavallaro had allowed people to swim with the reptile, as officials said Albert had been kept without a permit since 2021.

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uktxaBpFB9k

[Red Badger]

NY GATOR????....................

[riverrunner]

Alberts former owner is mentality ill

[teeman8r]

Albert, take to the sewers, now.

[Red Badger]

They took him to Texas.....................

[fwdude]

It’s inhumane to the alligator to keep him in a tightly confined home pen. The guy is a selfish loser.

[dfwgator]

[Dutch Boy]

Many New Yorkers are going to Texas... and Florida.

[PLMerite]

"Albert, take to the sewers, now."

[moovova]

[Red Badger]

LOL! Will add to my ‘collection’......................

[logi_cal869]

Possession of an alligator as a pet, however, is also prohibited by New York State Law.

and

Cavallaro chalked his permit lapse to recent changes in DEC rules for alligator ownership.

don't mesh.

There's more to this horribly written & researched story, and - in consideration of the history of humans bonding with other animals (lions, tigers, bears...oh my) - dismissing this as the owner being 'mentally ill' is rather simpleton.

[Red Badger]

Ironic that the name is ‘Irwin’....................😥

[Red Badger]

The Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans has a White Alligator on display in a small tank...................

[PLMerite]

Lake Placid. Actually a very funny movie.

[FLT-bird]

Uhhh...that's not THE Albert the Alligator. This is:

[teeman8r]

border patrol duty, the pay is minimal, but it is all he can eat.

[katykelly]

Take a look at the pictures of the “ pen “ . Albert was livin ‘ large !

[jmcenanly]

I think that I’d sleep a lot better knowing that there wasn’t a 750 pound predator loose in my home.

[I want the USA back]

He already was an emotional wreck. Definitely not right in the head to believe that the huge set of jaws can be a pet.