Petition to return alligator ‘son'

It’s a petition on Change.org and it has so far amassed over 100,000 signatures.  I’ll let this news report from last week explain the background:

It has been an emotional week for Tony Cavallaro of Hamburg [in New York state]. On Wednesday, the DEC [Department of Environmental Conservation] seized his alligator, Albert.

Cavallaro got Albert from a reptile show in 1990 when he was a baby and calls him a son. Now thousands have signed a petition to bring the 11-foot, 800-pound gator home.

The Hamburg resident said on Wednesday the DEC swarmed his home, with the help of police and the SPCA Serving Erie County, took his phone out of his hand, and would not let him say goodbye to Albert.

“It was really upsetting how it was handled,” said next-door neighbor Laura Lautner. “They loaded Albert on the back of a cargo van, and just laid him there.”