The owner of Albert the alligator in Hamburg is petitioning to regain his license to own an alligator. Anthony Cavallaro claims that New York's Department of Environmental Conservation is refusing to renew his license to own a dangerous animal.
In documents filed with the courts, Cavallaro claims he had a license in good standing with the DEC for more than 30 years. However, in 2021, he says he contacted the agency numerous times about renewing his license and never heard back.
The license became an issue following a change in regulations for possessing dangerous animals adopted by the DEC in 2020. After Cavallaro’s license expired in 2021, the agency said he failed to bring the holding area into compliance with the updated standards to ensure the alligator did not pose a danger to the public.
Cavallaro said the DEC failed to follow its own licensing requirements governing people who already owned a wild animal when the new regulations took effect.
In his lawsuit, Cavallaro says the agency’s denial of his license wasn’t “factually based,” his attorney, Peter Kooshoian, said Tuesday.
“We’re hoping that he will get his license to have the animal reinstated, and from there we’d like to either negotiate or litigate to have the animal brought back to Mr. Cavallaro because we feel that he should have had a valid license at the time, as he’d had for the last 30 years,” Kooshoian said.
He also claims that in March of this year, the DEC and other law enforcement agencies came to his home in Hamburg and seized the alligator while his renewal application was still pending.
“I’m hoping we get this thing resolved. That’s all I can do,” Cavallaro said of the decision to sue. “It’s overwhelming me. ... It’s ruined my whole year, destroyed it.”
Around the time of the seizure, the DEC alleged that Cavallaro had built an addition to his house for the gator without a permit. The agency also accused Cavallaro of allowing people to swim with the gator.
Albert the alligator has since been relocated to a rehabilitation center in Texas.
Cavallaro bought the American alligator at an Ohio reptile show in 1990 when Albert was two months old. He considers him an emotional support animal and “gentle giant.”
“You can interact with them in all different ways. It’s like a kick right in my teeth,” Cavallaro said.
The DEC does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesman said told the Associated Press via email when asked for a response to the claims.