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These days, seeing someone walk around a Walmart with an emotional support animal isn’t anything all that unusual. In fact, it’s a bit weird if you walk into a Walmart and don’t see some sort of animal.
An emotional support alligator, however, isn’t exactly something you expect to encounter.
But for one Western Pennsylvania man, taking his emotional support gator to the retail store had become the norm. That is, until Walmart banned it.
Wesley Silva, 60, of West Brownsville, Pennsylvania (about one hour south of Pittsburgh), had gotten used to taking his emotional support gator, Jinseioshi, almost everywhere he went.
That is, until Walmart stepped in.
“I didn’t think I would actually own an alligator, ever,” Silva told local news station WPXI. “It’s been really kind of incredible.
“We’ve gone to restaurants, we’ve been to Denny’s, where she’s a star there. She gets VIP treatment,” he added. “We’ve been out to Bob Evans, we’ve been out to the Wagon Wheel in West Brownsville.”
But after some complaints from customers, Walmart informed Silva that he couldn’t continue to bring the 4-year-old gator to the store with him.
“It’s been very positive, and I was really taken aback by that,” Silva said. “…I’ll just go with the flow.
Jinseioshi Is Pennsylvania’s Second Most Famous Emotional Support Alligator
Much like Gus the Groundhog (IYKYK), Silva’s emotional support alligator isn’t the most famous emotional support gator in Pennsylvania.
Instead, that honor goes to Wally, the emotional support alligator who made appearances at both Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia Flyers games in 2023.
Sadly, Wally was stolen from his enclosure by thieves and later released into the wild in early 2024. Local wildlife workers attempted to locate the stolen gator, but their attempts were fruitless.
Unfortunately, having been raised in captivity, Wally’s odds of survival in the wild are not great. Here’s hoping the same fate does not befall Jinseioshi, who seems like a pretty chill alligator, as alligators go.