HAMBURG, N.Y. — A western New York man is fighting to have his pet alligator returned after state authorities seized the giant reptile from his home on Wednesday.

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Tony Cavallaro, of Hamburg, has had Albert, an 11-foot alligator weighing more than 750 pounds, since 1990, WKBW-TV reported. His license to keep the reptile had expired in 2021, but Albert had remained in an in-ground swimming pool as part of a house addition that Cavarallo, 64, had built, according to the television station.

On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation removed Albert from his home after the agency determined that he was being kept there illegally, The New York Times reported. In a Facebook post, the DEC said that the alligator was seized “in the interest of public safety” and because Cavallaro “allegedly allowed members of the public to get into the water to pet the unsecured alligator.”

Albert also had several health issues, including blindness in both eyes and spinal complications, the DEC said.

Cavallaro said he returned to his home to discover DEC agents, along with local police and the SPCA Serving Erie County, with a warrant to remove Albert, WKBW reported.

Cavallaro said agents took his phone and loaded the alligator into the back of a cargo van. Authorities said they turned the animal over to a licensed caretaker who will house and care for it, WIVB-TV reported.

Cavallaro said he did not get the chance to say goodbye to his pet.

“Everything they did to me, they treated me like a terrorist,” Cavallaro told the television station.

Cavallaro said that although visitors to his home sometimes took photographs with Albert, they never swam with him or rode him, the Times reported. Instead, they would take a quick photo with the animal, usually when he was sleeping.

“I did everything by the book the whole time,” Cavallaro told the newspaper. “They changed the rules, and I should be grandfathered in. I shouldn’t have to abide by them.”

“He’s not having alligator get-togethers, or parties,” Laura Lautner, Cavallaro’s next-door neighbor, told WKBW. “He’s just a really nice guy and loves that alligator, and treats it well.”

Cavallaro told WIVB that he typically gets his permit on time, but claimed the DEC did not answer his “repeated phone calls” when he attempted to renew it in 2021.

“I’d always get my permit renewal two months beforehand. Then (the DEC) started to get sluggish,” he told the television station.

According to a DEC spokesperson, in 2020 the agency adopted new regulations for owning alligators and other animals considered dangerous, the Times reported. The DEC said it told Cavallaro about the changes and about required updates to his alligator’s enclosure, but said the resident did not make the necessary adjustments.

“Even if the owner was appropriately licensed, public contact with the animal is prohibited and grounds for license revocation and relocation of the animal,” the DEC told WKBW in a statement.

Cavallaro said he bought Albert when he was a newborn at a reptile show in Columbus, Ohio, in 1990, according to the newspaper. The New York resident is a reptile enthusiast who once owned more than 100 of them, but said he had to give them up 16 years ago because it was too much work, the Times reported.

Since Albert was taken, thousands of people have signed a petition to bring him home, WKBW reported.

“The poor thing loves me,” Cavallaro told the Times. “He was scared.

“I hope I can get him back, that’s all.”

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