PETA Global Issue 2

“Tell everyone never to go to roadside zoos. If you don’t go, they will have to let the bears retire.”

Geometric Grid Graphic: © iStock.com/Evgenii_Bobrov | Forest Graphic: © iStock.com/enjoynz

“Bernard” – PETA’s 7-foot-tall robotic bear voiced by Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea star Casey Affleck – is journeying around the US to remind people to stay away from animal-exploiting tourist traps. In most roadside zoos, bears live in concrete pits or pens, deprived of everything enjoyable or even essential to their physical and mental well-being. One, named Ben – who was confined to a barren, 12-foot-by-22-foot pen at a North Carolina roadside zoo – spent 75% of his waking hours pacing and gnawing on, pawing at, and head butting the chain-link fence surrounding his enclosure. From Pens to Prairies Thanks to generous members and supporters, PETA has now rescued Ben and 59 other bears who were living – if you can call it that – in depressing enclosures, which were sometimes filthy and rusted. Some who never set foot outside a cramped cage for decades are now running through meadows. And mother bears are raising their young instead of being forcibly separated from them so that they can be used as props in photos – or even slaughtered for meat. There were bears who were just skin and bones – and others who were obese from lack of exercise and an improper diet of sweets and white bread. Some had

Life in the Pits One target of PETA’s long-term advocacy is the Cherokee Bear Zoo in North Carolina. Surrounded by four high, solid walls, the bears see nothing but blank barriers and spend their days begging for white bread, iceberg lettuce, and dog chow from visitors standing above them. Sierra and Ursula pace incessantly in the bear pit at the Spring River Park & Zoo in Roswell, New Mexico. There’s little to help them pass the interminable days except walking endlessly in circles. The hard concrete is rough on their joints and wears down their sensitive paw pads. There are more than 1,000 bears still being held prisoner in grotesquely inhumane conditions across the US. PETA has long called on the US Department of Agriculture to broaden protections for these intelligent and inquisitive animals under the AWA. The agency promised to do just that more than a year ago, but so far, it has made little progress. Meanwhile, PETA frees as many bears as possible and keeps the pressure on.

been painfully declawed, and others suffered from intestinal parasites or broken teeth. One, named Sweet Baby, was severely underweight and housed in a tiny cage inside a dark barn.

Elsie, Dusty, and Bella have gone from pacing in filthy cages in sweltering heat at the Mobile Zoo in Alabama to roaming a multiacre, naturalistic habitat at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado that includes climate controlled dens and pools for bathing. The Mobile Zoo closed after its exhibitor license was revoked by the US Department of Agriculture for violations of the Animal Welfare Act – including failure to give animals proper food and clean water, denying the sick and injured veterinary care, and keeping them in filthy cages strewn with waste and rotting food – and the operator was charged with 28 counts of cruelty to animals.

Take Action Now Never visit a roadside zoo or any exhibit that exploits animals for human entertainment.

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