The New York man whose pet alligator Albert was confiscated by state officers warns animal house owners they could possibly be coming for you subsequent after a squirrel rescuer’s beloved buddy P’Nut was simply seized, too — and killed.
“I feel there’s a much bigger plan behind all this,” Tony Cavallaro informed The Submit on Sunday. “They’re going after harmless folks to see how far they will get away with us.”
Cavallaro stated he was horrified when he heard in regards to the state Division of Environmental Conservation’s therapy of P’Nut, a rehabilitated squirrel who was stored as a pet by New Yorker Mark Longo.
The company stormed Longo’s Pine Metropolis home Wednesday and seized the animal alongside along with his pet raccoon Fred. The DEC stated it needed to kill the wild pets to check them for rabies as a result of that they had been interacting intently with people.
“It’s simply actually unhappy, that squirrel didn’t do nothing,” Cavallaro stated, including that he knew all too properly how powerless Longo should have felt throughout the DEC’s raid.
“I’m so sorry for what they went by way of. There’s nothing they might do,” he stated of Longo and his spouse.
Cavallaro has been battling the DEC for almost eight months since Albert was taken from him in March.
The alligator – who Cavallaro had for 34 years and housed in an elaborate pen in his own residence — has since been transported to an “journey park” in Texas.
Cavallaro is now attempting to have Albert at the least transported to a sanctuary he trusts.
As for the DEC, Cavallaro has nothing however disgust and distrust.
“They’re simply soiled, soiled group. I don’t know what they’re attempting to do to us, however there isn’t any justification,’’ he stated.
The DEC stated it needed to take Albert as a result of it was unlawful for Cavallaro to maintain him — a declare which he staunchly refutes, insisting he tried quite a few instances to resume his longtime allow for Albert however that the company refused to reply for years.
Cavallaro known as the company’s therapy of Longo — who stated he was handled like “a terrorist” throughout their five-hour raid — was all too acquainted, recalling how armed officers tore his home aside as they stormed his dwelling for Albert.
Longo had been caring for P’Nut for seven years after he rescued him as a child when his mom was struck by a automobile.
He solely stored the squirrel as a result of it merely wouldn’t depart as soon as it had been nursed to well being — so P’Nut grew to become a quasi pet, beloved not simply by Longo but in addition by about 3 million individuals who adopted him on social media.
However all that got here crashing down Wednesday when the DEC confirmed up and took P’Nut and Fred. These animals had been focused — and never the others on Longo’s property — as a result of they lived in the home.
Each animals had been subsequently killed by the DEC due to the specter of rabies and such wild animals residing with people, state officers have stated. An agent claimed P’Nut bit them on the hand throughout the raid, too.
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