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'One Heck Of A Lizard.' Monster 625-pound, 13-foot Alligator Pulled From SC Lake. Take A Look

It was a big weekend at Cordray's Processing and Taxidermy in Ravenel for the first weekend of South Carolina's annual alligator hunt.

On Sunday they posted on Facebook that they had received 18 gators for processing.

Some on the smaller size, some about 11 feet and then there was the first one brought in on Saturday night. A whopper — 13 feet long and 625 pounds caught in the upper portion of Lake Marion, South Carolina's premiere alligator lake.

Michael Cordray, who started the business about 30 years ago, said Saturday's catch was among the top five alligators for length and weight he's processed. The biggest was 825 pounds and 13 feet, 6 inches.

His business gets 90 to 100 alligators during the hunting season, which runs from Sept. 10 to Oct. 8.

The hunter was identified as Nick Gilbert. He could not be reached for comment.

One person posted on Cordray's Facebook page, "Seen them leaving the ramp with him, one heck of a lizard. Pictures don't do it justice."

Another said, "That's a freaking dinosaur!!"

According to the AZ Animals website, South Carolina's biggest alligator catch was 13 feet 6 inches and 1,025 pounds caught by Maryellen Mara-Christian of Fitchburg, Mass. In Lake Moultrie.

She was described as an experienced wild game hunter, who caught the alligator on a guided hunt on Sept. 15, 2010. It took two hours to bring it in.

"They got 40 pounds of edible meat from the gator and left the body with a taxidermist to display this remarkable catch," the website said..

South Carolina issues around 1,000 alligator tags a year and hunters are selected by lottery. Roughly 300 alligators are killed each season, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Last year, 309 alligators were taken across the state's four regions, about the same number in each region, said Jay Butfiloski, DNR's furbearer and alligator program coordinator. A couple are often 13 feet long.

He said it's hard to say precisely the largest taken because public hunt records are available only since the state began the program in 2008.

"I have had some nuisance alligator agents claim to have taken ones that were 14' over the years, but I cannot verify that," he said.

Last year, 8,381 hunters applied for the public hunt.

Western NY Man Whose Pet Alligator Was Seized Is Fighting To Get 'Albert' Back

Hamburg, N.Y. — The owner of an alligator recently seized by conservation officers in New York is fighting for its return, saying the reptile he named Albert and has shared a home with for more than three decades is a gentle giant that's no danger to anyone.

Officers a week ago met Tony Cavallaro in the driveway of his suburban Buffalo home with a warrant, before sedating the 12-foot, 750-pound alligator, taping his mouth and driving him away in a van.

Cavallaro's license to keep Albert, who is 34 years old, had expired in 2021, the Department of Environmental Conservation said. But even if it had been renewed, Cavallaro had let other people pet the alligator, even get in the pool with him, providing grounds for the removal under the rules for keeping animals classified as dangerous, the department said.

Cavallaro, 64, sees Albert differently. His alligator was born and raised in captivity and has never showed signs of aggression toward people or other animals, he said. He recalled finding Albert curled up with his dog on the dog's bed when the alligator was smaller.

"He's just a big baby," Cavallaro said Tuesday, showing pictures of Albert gripping a stuffed alligator in its teeth and resting his chin on a stack of pillows.

Cavallaro has hired a lawyer in hopes of getting Albert back, and his efforts are being backed by his own neighbors as well as strangers across social media. An online petition has been signed by more than 120,000 people and fans have created "Free Albert" T-shirts and buttons.

A friend even penned a song for the cause: "Oh Albert, please come home," the pal sings while strumming a guitar in a video posted to Facebook.

Cavallaro has lived with Albert for more than half of his life after buying the alligator at an Ohio reptile show when it was two months old and considers him an "emotional support animal."

He spent $120,000 on a custom addition to his house designed around Albert, complete with heated floors, a filtering indoor pond with a waterfall and spa jet, tropical plants and a bar.

Now it's hard to enter the space, Cavallaro said, gathering up the stack of Albert's pillows he said had been tossed aside by the officers and returning them to the carpet where the alligator liked to lay.

"It's so empty," said Cavallaro, who wasn't told where the alligator was taken.

Cavallaro acknowledges that acquaintances and their children have also been up close and personal with Albert, posing for pictures and petting him, occasionally getting in the water. But he says Albert is so affectionate that he hurries to the side of the pool to greet Cavallaro's 84-year-old mother when she visits. She used to watch Albert when Cavallaro went on vacation, he said.

"She would sit in his room with him and read with him laying his head on her foot," he said.

The license became an issue following a change in regulations for possessing dangerous animals adopted by the Department of Environmental Conservation in 2020. After Cavallaro's license expired in 2021, he failed to bring the holding area into compliance to ensure the alligator did not pose a danger to the public, the agency said.

Cavallaro said he unsuccessfully sought clarification to renew the license and believes he should have been grandfathered in to the old regulations.

Owning Albert is the culmination of a lifelong interest in reptiles, said Cavallaro, who has previously owned caimans, similar to an alligator, a monitor and a menagerie of lizards.

"It's just a fascination. I love these animals and learned a lot about them," he said.

He disputes the DEC's claim that Albert has "numerous health-related issues, including blindness in both eyes and spinal complications."

The alligator, who subsists on a diet of raw chicken and pork chops supplemented by vitamins, is under the care of a veterinarian, including for cataracts, but Cavallaro said he is not blind. He said there was nothing wrong with the alligator's spine before it was carried away.

DEC officials declined to say where Albert is being kept. In a statement, the agency said only that he's with "a licensed caretaker who will house and care for the animal until it can be properly transported for permanent care."

It's unknown how many alligators are kept as pets in the U.S., but wildlife officials periodically report being called to rescue abandoned reptiles from parks and creeks. Officials believe a lethargic 4-foot alligator found in Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn in February 2023 was likely an abandoned pet.

In Buffalo in 2014, animal control officers spent days trying to retrieve a caiman from a creek, eventually succeeding.

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Albert The Alligator's 'dad' Chomps At The Bit To Retrieve His Pet Gator Seized By State: 'Free Albert'

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A pet alligator living with his owner for over 30 years in western New York was seized by state authorities, which sparked a firestorm of backlash.

Many people in the town of Hamburg, New York, a Buffalo suburb, backed "Albert the Alligator's" owner, Tony Cavallaro, and started an online petition urging the state to return Cavallaro's 11-foot, 750-pound "child."

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which took the alligator away, said Cavallaro's license to have the alligator expired in 2021, and the gator was taken "in the interest of public safety."

However, neighbors and area residents backed Cavallaro, who told a local news outlet, "I'm Albert's dad, that's all there is to it."

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New York State authorities seized a pet alligator, named "Albert," from his owner in Hamburg, New York. (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation)

The gator was seized last week, according to the DEC, which said Cavallaro allowed members of the public to get into the water with "Albert," who had his own room, pool and waterfall in his Erie County home. 

"The alligator has numerous health-related issues, including blindness in both eyes and spinal complications," the DEC said in a statement. 

However, Cavallaro bit back against the state agency's accusations, saying, "Every one who has met Albert or knows Albert knows that this is not true."

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"I took care of him better than most people take care of their kids," he said, according to an online petition, which garnered nearly 115,000 signatures as of late Tuesday morning. 

The petition includes about a dozen videos from supporters. One person, who said she is a personal friend of Cavallaro, said he takes care of his gator and the two should be reunited. 

Another person said, "I signed the petition because I have a heart …. Free Albert."

"Albert the Alligator" in his Erie County, New York, home before state authorities seized the gator. (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation)

DEC's response

The issue at the center of the "Free Albert" debate is a permit lapse, and public contact with the alligator. 

"Possession of animals designated as dangerous, including alligators, is prohibited in New York State except under license from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)," the DEC told Fox News Digital in an email. 

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"These licenses, along with authorizing possession for regulated activities, protect the animal and the public. In this case, the former owner's license to possess the alligator expired in 2021 and was not renewed. 

"At that time, DEC determined the owner's facility failed to meet specific conditions to ensure this dangerous animal did not come in contact with humans and did not pose a threat to humans or the animal."

Authorities seized Albert the Alligator, which the DEC says has health issues. (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation)

Those conditions included deficiencies in the gator's holding area, which needed to be rectified before Cavallaro's license could be renewed. 

Even then, Albert may still have been hauled away because Cavallaro allowed the public to swim and take pictures with his pet. 

"To be clear, even if the owner were appropriately licensed, public contact with the animal is prohibited and grounds for license revocation and relocation of the animal," the DEC said. 

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Albert the Alligator was turned over to a licensed caretaker, who will house the animal until it can be transported for permanent care. 

Evidence is still being seized, as part of a warrant and ongoing investigation, to determine if any potential charges will be filed. 

Cavallaro's side of the story

Cavallaro is not going away quietly. He told WKBW, a local ABC affiliate, that he tried to renew his permit but could not get clarification from the DEC about certain changes. 

He argues, as the gator's owner for 34 years, he should be grandfathered in. 

Cavallaro told 7 News that kids have posed for pictures in the pool with Albert in the back, but it was not often.

This is a sample of the comments on an online petition for a New York man to keep his alligator. (change.Org)

His neighbor, Laura Lautner, told the local news outlet that it was not like he was "having (an) alligator get together, or parties. He's just a really nice guy and loves that alligator, and treats it well."

Cavallaro said state and local authorities that seized Albert swarmed his home with "20 or more agents … in full body armor and guns treating me like a criminal," according to the online petition. 

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"It was like I was a gun-dealing, drug-dealing criminal the way they acted," he said, according to the petition. "The scene that they made on my street is very disturbing and totally wrong. I am very upset and angry about this whole incident."

He said he will post updates about potential court information as it becomes available.  

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