A Buffalo-area man ends his fight to reclaim Albert, his 12-foot alligator seized in 2024

HAMBURG, N.Y. (AP) — 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 suburban Buffalo home in March 2024. The officers sedated the 12-foot (3.6-meter), 750-pound (340-kilogram) alligator and drove him away in a van.

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 he decided in March to throw in the towel after almost two years of costly litigation with no quick end in sight, according to his attorney.

“Tony’s upset,” attorney Peter Kooshoian said Thursday. “He had the animal for over 30 years — never had a problem until this occurred. So he doesn’t feel he was treated correctly by the government.”

Even if Cavallaro prevailed, he believed the state would be heavily regulating how he took care of the animal, Kooshoian said

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.”