Albert The Alligator Lawsuit Filed To Return Gator to Owner
The fight to bring Albert the Alligator back to Hamburg is not over.
Tony Cavallaro has filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Environmental Conservation after its decision to remove the 750-pound alligator he calls Albert, claiming he never received an explanation as to why the 11-foot-long animal was removed from his home.
Albert was moved to a rehabilitation facility in Texas in May after being removed from Cavallaro’s home in March.
At the time, the DEC said Cavallaro did not have a proper and current licensing on the exotic animal; Cavallaro in his lawsuit claims he’s had a license to own the alligator since he purchased it in August 1990.
“Since owning the alligator, I have always worked cooperatively with the DEC; never received any violations or warnings; always properly cared for the alligator; and always registered the alligator with the Hamburg Police and Fire Departments as required by law,” according to the lawsuit.
He last renewed his license in September 2020; shortly thereafter, he says the DEC “changed their regulations pertaining to Possession of Dangerous Animals. On November 6, they sent me a letter regarding these new regulations.” A month later he applied for his renewal and provided the requested photographs showing the alligator’s habitat, along with insurance coverage and other requirements. In January 2021, he received a letter from the DEC “indicating that although I had been in possession of the American alligator for several decades, recent regulatory changes required additional safeguards, including that all entrances to the facility be constructed so the outside door can be securely closed to prevent visitors from directly contacting the animal.”
Cavallaro says in the lawsuit he sent multiple emails and calls to the DEC for clarification through the course of 2021, eventually contacting State Senator Sean Ryan’s office for help. The lawsuit says Sen. Ryan also received no response.
The alligator was seized on March 6 “without notice and while my application for renewal was still pending as I had not received any notice stating otherwise,” the lawsuit says. The DEC responded to a May 15 letter sent by Cavallaro on May 24, saying the license was denied “for not having safeguards in place to prevent the public from having direct physical contact with the alligator.”
“I have worked cooperatively with the DEC for over 30 years. I constructed an enclosure for the alligator sufficient to protect the public and received no prior warnings pertaining to its sufficiency from the DEC for over 30 years (during which time they renewed my license without incident); received no complaints or warnings pertaining to the alligator; and have always done my best to comply with all laws pertaining to housing and caring for the alligator,” Cavallaro says. “To the extent (the DEC) had any legitimate concerns I should have been afforded some reasonable opportunity to address those concerns. An outright seizure of the alligator and denial of my license was excessive as a matter of state law.”