Explained: Who is Wally, the emotional support alligator, seen chilling at US park? (2024)

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Explained: Who is Wally, the emotional support alligator, seen chilling at US park? ›

Henney told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2019 that Wally helped alleviate depression following the deaths of several close friends. He said a doctor treating his depression had endorsed Wally's status as his emotional support animal

He hasn't since the day he was caught. We never could understand why.” Emotional support alligator, Wally, wanders in 2022 around Love Park in Philadelphia. Henney has had Wally since the reptile was a little over a year old and just 20 inches long.

"Wally was stolen by some jerk who likes to drop alligators off into someone's yard to terrorize them," the account posted the following day. "Once discovered they called [Department of Natural Resources], DNR then called a trapper.

In 2022, Wally went viral on social media after he was seen swimming in Philadelphia's LOVE Park. That same year, Henney and Wally were featured in "On the Road with Steve Hartman" on the CBS Evening News, where Henney explained that the rescue gator never bites anyone and has helped him battle depression.

The neighbor called the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which dispatched a trapper who took custody of Wally and released him in a swamp.

The emotional support alligator was on a trip to Georgia when he was stolen. According to his owner, Wally was released into a swamp with other gators and would be nearly impossible to find.

Since Wally the emotional support alligator went missing, he has become an international celebrity. The 8-year-old gator - owned by Joie Henney, a York Haven man who adopted him when he was a mere pup, or whatever baby gators are called - went missing on April 21 while Henney was visiting friends in Brunswick, Ga.

Henney lives in Dauphin County, and Wally resides at an animal sanctuary in York County, according to a 2021 PennLive profile of Wally and Henney's work, which noted that the gator is particularly docile and comforting to humans in need.

Joie Henney has thousands of social media users following his pages devoted to Wally, the cold-blooded companion that he calls his emotional support alligator. He has posted photos and videos online of people petting the 5 1/2-foot (1.7 meter) alligator like a dog or hugging it like a teddy bear.

"I've never met an alligator that will not bite you," Henney told CBS Evening News in 2022. "You fool around the head like this (Joe puts his hand in Wally's mouth), their instinct is to grab you [with their teeth] - but he does not do it.

Who owns Wally the alligator? ›

Joie Henney, a York Haven man who raised Wally from a baby, had reported that Wally had been taken from an enclosure by a prankster while he was visiting friends in Brunswick, Ga., and placed in the yard of a neighbor. The neighbor called police, who referred her to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Though alligators have something of a reputation for being incredibly dangerous, considering how quickly they can kill their prey, they can sometimes be very friendly. Multiple cases of alligators bonding with humans have occurred over the course of history, though these are often few and far between.

Wally Gator is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired as one of the segments from the 1962–1963 block The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series. The other two segments that compose the series are Touché Turtle and Dum Dum and Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har.

Disappearance. One day, the Flash fought longtime villain Abra Kadabra, who used his magical powers to cast Wally into the Speed Force and wipe his existence from everyone's memories.

Wally, an emotional support alligator that was denied entrance to a Phillies game last year, was apparently kidnapped, found and dropped in a swamp. WallyGator, the emotional support alligator who enjoyed a moment of fame last year when he was denied admittance to a Major League Baseball game, is back in the news.

A foot-long American alligator that went missing at a Kansas City middle school event has been found nearly two weeks after the reptile went missing. “The missing alligator has been located, alive, and was picked up by our Animal Services Division,” KC Pet Project shared on Facebook Monday afternoon.