Joie Henney says his emotional assist alligator, Wally, is lacking in Georgia after being kidnapped, discovered and launched right into a swamp with some 20 different gators.
Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer through AP
conceal caption
toggle caption
Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer through AP
Joie Henney says his emotional assist alligator, Wally, is lacking in Georgia after being kidnapped, discovered and launched right into a swamp with some 20 different gators.
Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer through AP
In peculiar instances, the social media accounts dedicated to Wally Gator doc the practically six-foot-long emotional assist alligator’s adventures round Pennsylvania: visiting nursing properties, splashing round in Philadelphia’s Love Park fountain, assembly with the mayor and smiling contentedly in his pink harness as varied admirers hug and maintain him.
In latest days, nevertheless, they have been overtaken with pleas for assist: Wally is lacking in Georgia, the place his proprietor Joie Henney says he was kidnapped, recovered and launched right into a swamp.
Henney and Wally have been visiting pals in Brunswick when somebody took the gator from his pen within the early morning hours of April 21, the Wallygator Fb web page posted on Saturday.
“Wally was stolen by some jerk who likes to drop alligators off into somebody’s yard to terrorize them,” the account posted the next day. “As soon as found they referred to as [Department of Natural Resources], DNR then referred to as a trapper. The trapper got here and received Wally and dropped him off in a swamp with about 20 different alligators that very same day.”
A spokesperson for the Georgia Division of Sources advised NPR on Friday {that a} permitted trapper had responded to a “nuisance alligator name” in Brunswick on April 21 and later launched it “in a distant location.”
They described the way in which the trapper dealt with the alligator as “acceptable and routine.” However they might not verify whether or not the animal in query is Wally, or the place he’s now.
The Wallygator Fb web page didn’t specify the placement of the swamp, however urged folks to get in contact with Henney to help within the search and “pray as a result of we’d like a miracle,” particularly given the presence of the opposite alligators.
“The swamp could be very giant and the trapper stated the possibilities of them discovering Wally is slim to none,” it continued. “However that is Wally … Joie and pals are at present headed to the swamp to look and can proceed each day.”
As of Friday, practically 400 folks had donated greater than $10,000 to a web based fundraiser supporting “journey prices, advising prices and doable authorized and veterinary prices” associated to Wally’s disappearance.
Henney has not responded to NPR’s requests for remark. However in a submit on his private Fb web page, he thanked supporters for his or her concern and stated there’s a no-questions-asked reward for Wally’s secure return.
“Wally is essential to me in addition to to a number of different those that he makes comfortable and places pleasure of their hearts,” he wrote, alongside pictures of the 2 of them cuddling.
Wally has greater than 145,000 followers on TikTok, 35,000 on Instagram and 10,000 on Fb. And that is not his solely declare to fame: He was additionally the visible reference for Alligator Loki within the Disney+ present Loki.
After Wally made headlines final September for being turned away from a Phillies recreation, Henney advised NPR that Wally, then 8 years previous, got here into his life at about 18 months.
Henney had lengthy rescued and rehabilitated animals and did not got down to maintain this one.
“However Wally turned particular, and he hooked up to me actually tremendous shut, so I saved him,” Henney stated.
Wally loves chin rubs and giving hugs, and does not chunk when folks get near him — one thing Henney stated he’d by no means seen in his three a long time of dealing with gators.
Wally has been a supply of consolation to strangers and pals alike, if social media is any indication. And he was by Henney’s facet for a collection of inauspicious moments, together with the lack of a number of relations and his personal remedy for prostate most cancers.
“He means loads to me,” Henney stated. “Truly, he means as a lot to me as my youngsters.”
Henney stated Wally is the primary reptile to be legally licensed as an emotional assist animal, a course of he went by a number of years in the past at his physician’s suggestion.
Reptiles are permitted as pets underneath Pennsylvania state legislation, they simply cannot be launched into the wild. In Georgia, nevertheless, “solely licensed or permitted people can retain alligators in captivity,” in accordance with the DNR.
On Friday, a submit from the Wallygator Fb account stated the DNR had advised Henney he can be prosecuted if he catches Wally. The DNR spokesperson declined to remark past their assertion.
In the meantime, in a Wally fan Fb group, anxious admirers are discussing the logistical and authorized elements of his state of affairs and suggesting ways for looking for him — from flooding the governor’s workplace with calls to distributing flyers within the space to calling in TV’s Canine the Bounty Hunter.
