Air turbulence: When can it become dangerous?
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
Emotional support animal registrations in the United States reached 115,832 last year, by an industry group’s count. But in the eyes of reptile rescuer Joie Henney, there’s only one:
“Wally Gator” – his “gentle” certified emotional support alligator.
And now, Wally has gone missing – far from home.
While Henney, of northeast Pennsylvania, was visiting Brunswick, Georgia, on April 21, Wally disappeared from his outdoor pen, according to the Wallygator Facebook page.
A Georgia Department of Natural Resources “permitted trapper responded to a nuisance alligator call in Brunswick on 4/21,” the agency confirmed to CNN in a statement. The creature was secured and “later released in a remote location,” the department’s Wildlife Resources Division spokesperson Melissa Cummings said.
“The agent trapper’s handling of a nuisance alligator was appropriate and routine,” she told CNN. The department “routinely” gets calls about “nuisance alligators,” she said, and refers callers to a permitted alligator agent trapper, per its protocols.
Whether the animal released after the April 21 call was Wally, however, remains an open question: The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has no information to confirm it – nor any further information about Wally’s whereabouts, Cummings said.
Still, the search is on.
A GoFundMe campaign Henney organized to cover travel, advising and possible legal and veterinary costs to “Bring WallyGator Home!!” is nearly a third of way to its US$30,000 goal; Henney did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on Wally’s disappearance.
Wally, for his part, is no stranger to public attention, usually interacting with fans at events in his home state, as well as being the subject of popular TikTok and Instagram accounts organized by Henney. Wally is often shown letting others pet and hold him, with Henney telling CNN in 2022, “He doesn’t show anger. He doesn’t show aggression. He hasn’t since the day he was caught. We never could understand why.”
Henney has had Wally since the reptile was a little over a year old and just 20 inches long. He got the critter from Florida, where there is an “overabundance of alligators” and they are considered nuisances and often euthanized or put in captivity, he told CNN.
Even so, Henney often has gotten criticism over Wally, he said, because people “don’t know the story behind everything.” In fact, Wally has provided companionship and support through Henney’s radiation treatments for cancer.
“He’s just loveable,” Henney said. “He sleeps with me, steals my pillows, steals my blankets. He’s just awesome.”
Pennsylvania has no law barring alligators as pets: The state Fish and Boat Commission does “not regulate possession of non-native species of reptiles and amphibians,” its website states.
Georgia law, however, lets “only licensed or permitted individuals … retain alligators in captivity,” Cummings said. “Most native species of wildlife cannot be held without permits or licenses. These licenses are not issued for the purpose of having native wildlife as pets.”
And the Peach State isn’t the only place Wally hasn’t exactly been welcome. His fame reignited last year when the alligator was denied entry to a Philadelphia Phillies game. According to Citizens Bank Park, any animals – excluding service dogs – are prohibited.
“Wally has been into other baseball games, so we assumed that it was OK,” Henney said. “We never asked or checked with it, but they only allow service animals, such as dogs and horses, into the stadium, not (emotional support) animals.”
Similarly, the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2020 announced airlines “are not required to recognize emotional support animals as service animals.” The latter is “a dog … trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability,” while emotional support animals are prescribed by mental health professionals to provide their owners with comfort and support but don’t have to be trained in specific tasks.
Henney at the time of the Phillies rejection made clear: “There was no disagreement, there was no arguing, there was no conflict at all. It was all good.”
CNN’s Ben Morse, Zoe Sottile and Sara Smart contributed to this report.
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
The Toronto Blue Jays have offered tickets and a signed baseball to a fan who says she was struck in the face by a 110 m.p.h (177 km/h) foul ball at Friday’s game.
Members of a killer whale pod related to an orphan orca calf that escaped a remote British Columbia tidal lagoon last month have been spotted off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.
Ontario Provincial Police continue to investigate a long weekend fatal boat collision on Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont.
An investigation has been opened into the death of Matthew Perry and how the “Friends” actor received the anesthetic ketamine, which was ruled a contributing factor in his death.
New inflation data is 'welcome news' for consumers and an economist says it could signal the possibility for a interest rate cut as several core measures also continue to ease.
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is facing fresh Conservative-led calls to resign, this time over "very partisan" and 'inflammatory' language used – the Liberals say mistakenly – to promote an upcoming event.
Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada Goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.