Parkgoers who were cooling off at a fountain at Philadelphia’s Love Park on Friday got quite the shock when they had an up-close encounter with an alligator.
The reptile, who was being walked on a leash by a young girl, seemed to be trying to beat the heat under the refreshing spray of the fountain.
Wally the Alligator is the emotional support animal of Joie Henney – a Philadelphia man and longtime reptile rescuer who has worked with alligators for 30 years.
Video taken by bystanders at the park over the weekend show the gator sauntering along on his leash, greeting people, and at one point lying on his stomach in a puddle to cool off.
Wally’s owner Henney, who was not far from his pet at the park that day, runs several social media accounts documenting the life of his beloved gator, with the help of close friend Mary Johnson and her children.
‘They just had a blast,’ Henney told CNN. ‘People came as soon as they heard Wally was there to get a hug and get a photo with him.’
Joie Henney, a Philadelphia man and reptile rescuer who has worked with alligators for 30 years, was out for a walk with his pet alligator Wally at Philadelphia’s Love Park on Friday
Wally the Alligator is walked on a leash by a young girl at Philadelphia’s Love Park on Friday
Wally’s appearance at the park on Friday stunned not only bystanders but social media users who later saw the video on WallyGator’s TikTok that has amassed more than 122,000 views.
Most people were in awe of the reptile, while others questioned the safety of the animal walking through the park.
‘Are you allowed to walk gators around Philly?’ one user asked, to which the account responded that law enforcement had given them the go ahead to walk in the park.
‘Yet so many skateboarders have been arrested there,’ another user lamented.
One joked: ‘I would’ve bet anything this was in Florida.’
Many bamboozled fans announced they wanted to travel to Philly to see Wally in action.
‘Ok so now I am going to have to go to Phil just to see Wally!’ one exclaimed.
Wally came into Henney’s life seven years ago as a baby gator when he was removed from a lagoon in Florida due to an overabundance of alligators and another gator-rescuing friend reached out to Henney for help.
‘There was an overabundance of gators in that area,’ Henney said, further explaining that in Florida, so-called ‘nuisance alligators’ must be either euthanized or transferred into captivity.
The two have been inseparable ever since.
Henney registered his pet alligator, Wally, as an emotional support pet in December 2018. Henney likens Wally to a dog and says that the gator just wants to be ‘loved and petted’
Henney’s gator-rescuing friend from Florida asked him if he wanted Wally back in 2015. Henney, who had a hunting and fishing TV show for a decade, said yes, he did want a gator
‘Wally has been quite different than any alligator I’ve ever dealt with in the past 30 years,’ Henney said. ‘He doesn’t show anger. He doesn’t show aggression. He hasn’t since the day he was caught. We never could understand why.
‘He’s just loveable. He sleeps with me, steals my pillows, steals my blankets. He’s just awesome.’
In 2019, Henney was able to get Wally licensed as an emotional support animal.
The alligator has provided comfort for him as he has undergone radiation treatments for cancer.
Wally was just over a year old when he arrived at Henney’s home in 2015
Henney said he originally wanted to see if he could register Wally as a service animal, after discovering his calming effect on people with developmental issues, but settled on registering him as an emotional support animal
‘I went through a real hard depression and he brought me out of it,’ Henney has said in a previous interview about Wally. ‘My doctor wanted to give me anti-depression medicine and I refused to take it.’
So instead, Wally has been Henney’s medicine.
Henney claims alligators are easier to train than dogs and he isn’t concerned about the possibility of Wally biting someone.
‘Wally is the only gator I’ve ever been around that refuses to bite,’ he said. ‘It’s mind-boggling — just hard to believe.’
While emotional support pets might not get any special privileges under federal law, Wally is allowed to go almost anywhere with Henney, barring some restaurants that have rejected Wally’s presence supposedly out of fear that the gator could carry salmonella.
The pair made headlines a year ago and have continued to film content for Wally’s TikTok and Instagram, along with the help of family friends.
Henney’s videos on social media have amassed some 3.7 billion views and Wally is currently leading the America’s Favorite Pet Animal Kingdom, a contest that supports animal rescue and rehabilitation. The winner of the contest will get $10,000.
Henney, who continues to battle cancer, also has a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of care for Wally and other reptiles in need.
Henney said that Wally likes to have the top of his head rubbed, just like a dog does
Henney takes Wally around to schools and senior centers for educational reasons. Wally is seen here at Pennsylvania’s SpiriTrust Lutheran Village on January 14, 2019
Wally is quite content to be held the way a traditional pet would be held. Henney said that Wally has never bitten him or tried to bite anyone else
Wildlife experts have pushed for new laws banning alligators as pets, since they’re often abandoned when they grow too large for their owners to care for them.
Henney has previously said that he has made to sure to emphasize at his educational gator presentations that alligators do not make good house pets because they are still wild animals.
But he adds that he hopes Wally’s story can help encourage people to ‘be nice to other people’ and hopes he can ‘put a smile on people’s faces — this world is rough enough.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk