Man says his emotional support alligator, known for its big social media audience, has gone missing

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man who credit an alligator named Wally for serving to relieve his melancholy for practically a decade says he’s trying to find the reptile after it went lacking throughout a trip to the coast of Georgia.

Joie Henney has 1000’s of social media customers following his pages dedicated to Wally, the cold-blooded companion that he calls his emotional assist alligator. He has posted pictures and movies on-line of individuals petting the 5 1/2-foot (1.7 meter) alligator like a canine or hugging it like a teddy bear. Wally’s reputation soared to new heights final 12 months when the gator was denied entry to a Philadelphia Phillies recreation.

Now Henney stated he’s distraught after Wally vanished whereas accompanying him on an April trip in Brunswick, Georgia, a port metropolis 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah. He stated he suspects somebody stole Wally from the fenced, out of doors enclosure the place Wally spent the evening on April 21.

In social media posts, Henney stated pranksters left Wally outdoors the house of somebody who referred to as authorities, leading to his alligator being trapped and launched into the wild.

“We’d like all the assistance we will get to carry my child again,” Henney stated in a tearful video posted on TikTok. “Please, we’d like your assist.”

Henney stated he didn’t have time to speak when The Related Press reached him by cellphone Wednesday morning. He didn’t instantly return follow-up messages.

The person from Jonestown, Pennsylvania, has beforehand stated he obtained Wally in 2015 after the alligator was rescued in Florida on the age of 14 months. Henney informed The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2019 that Wally helped alleviate melancholy following the deaths of a number of shut associates. He stated a physician treating his melancholy had endorsed Wally’s standing as his emotional assist animal.

“He has by no means tried to chew nobody,” Henney informed the newspaper.

Nobody has filed police reviews concerning the lacking alligator in Brunswick and surrounding Glynn County, in response to spokespersons for town and county police departments.

The Georgia Division of Pure Assets confirmed that somebody within the Brunswick space reported a nuisance alligator on April 21 — the day Henney stated Wally went lacking — and {that a} licensed trapper was dispatched to seize it. The company stated in a press release that the gator was “launched in a distant location,” however pressured that it doesn’t know if the reptile was Wally.

It’s unlawful in Georgia for individuals to maintain alligators with no particular license or allow, and the state Division of Pure Assets says it doesn’t grant permits for pet gators. Pennsylvania has no state regulation towards proudly owning alligators, although it’s unlawful for homeowners to launch them into the wild, in response to its Fish and Boat Fee.

David Mixon, a wildlife biologist and coastal supervisor for the Georgia Division of Pure Assets, has dealt with loads of alligators reported in individuals’s yards and swimming swimming pools. He has additionally proven gators stored in captivity in shows to highschool teams and Boy Scout troops.

He stated even alligators that appear docile could be harmful, and he all the time makes certain to carry their mouths closed with a hand or, ideally, a band.

“They’re unpredictable, they usually’re usually reactive to stimulus,” Mixon stated. “There’s a lot of movies and photos the place individuals deal with gators, they usually do it with out getting harm. However the extra time you spend round them, the extra seemingly you’re to be injured.”

State wildlife officers in neighboring Florida, house to an estimated 1.3 million alligators, have recorded greater than 450 instances of unprovoked alligators biting people since 1948. That features greater than 90 gator bites since 2014, six of them deadly.

In areas the place individuals can legally personal alligators, it’s attainable for them to be thought of emotional assist animals, stated Lori Kogan, a psychologist and Colorado State College professor who research interactions between people and animals.

In contrast to service animals that assist individuals with disabilities corresponding to blindness or post-traumatic stress, emotional assist animals don’t have any particular coaching, Kogan stated. Additionally they don’t have any official registry, although well being professionals usually write letters of endorsement for homeowners with a recognized psychological well being situation.

“Folks can get very hooked up to quite a lot of animals,” Kogan stated. “Are you able to get hooked up to a reptile? Can it carry you consolation? I’d say sure. Me personally? No.”