According to the specialist the aligator has many health issues like blindness and spinal complication.
An 11-foot 340-kg,34 years old alligator, which was being kept illegally at a home in Florida, was seized by Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs). In a Facebook post, authorities said that “the owner of the home had built an addition to his house and installed an in-ground swimming pool for his roughly 30-year-old alligator,was a gentle alligator who didn’t pose a threat to the people and children he swam with.
and allegedly allowed members of the public to get into the water to pet the unsecured alligator”. The reptile’s name is Albert, according to CNN-affiliate WKBW.
“I’m Albert’s dad, that’s all there is to it. He’s like family to everybody,” his owner Tony Cavallaro told the outlet after the seizure on Wednesday.
Mr Cavallaro told WKBW his license to own Albert had expired in 2021 and he tried unsuccessfully to renew it with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
But authorities said it is illegal to keep an alligator at home. “Even if the owner was appropriately licensed, public contact with the animal is prohibited and grounds for license revocation and relocation of the animal,” the department told WKBW.
New York Post said that Mr Cavallaro invited children from his neighbourhood to swim with the alligator.
The homeowner “allegedly allowed members of the public to get into the water to pet the unsecured alligator”, it quoted the state Department of Environmental Conservation as saying.
According to the specialist the aligator has many health issues like blindness and spinal complication.
The alligator’s owner is fighting to get his pet reptile back.
“As everyone has probably already heard The DEC and SPCA took Albert away from me saying that I put people in harm’s way with him. Everyone who has met Albert or knows Albert knows that this is not true,” he said in an online petition.
The petition further said I was take more care of this aligator as like my child.
Residents of a community in New York are rallying behind a man whose 34-year companionship with an 11-foot, 750-pound alligator, named Albert, came to a halt authorities seized him on Wednesday. The reptile was a fixture in the Hamburg home of owner Tony Cavallaro and people came to visit him and even pet him.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) spearheaded the removal of the now ailing alligator from the man’s residence, citing numerous health-related issues, including blindness and spinal complications.
“DEC determined the owner’s facility failed to meet specific conditions to ensure this dangerous animal did not come in contact with humans and did not pose a threat to humans or the animal,” stated DEC officials in correspondence with The New York Post.