Abandoned Bears

A Molly and Dolly are 14-year old black bears. They were originally purchased by a tourist attraction in North Hudson , NY as cubs (born in captivity) from a small zoological park in NY and eventually abandoned when the attraction closed. The tourist attraction was called Frontier Town, in North Hudson , NY . The park closed their doors in 1999. For the first three years, there was a maintenance man on salary to care for the facility, and he fed the bears through a chute into their enclosure. For the next three years, the maintenance man was no longer paid and no funds were provided for food, the bears were completely abandoned. They apparently had no de-worming or veterinary care since 1999. The maintenance man continued to (intermittently) bring the bears pizza, chocolate doughnuts, chocolate candy bars and 5-gallon buckets of potato chips and put it in through the chute, although their swimming pool (also serving as drinking water) and their enclosure were never cleaned. They continued to live with no veterinary care, clean water or enrichment, in the filthy enclosure for another three years. Local townsfolk discovered the bears and were also periodically stopping in and sliding honey-covered pancakes and sweets to the bears over the years. We couldn't believe they were still alive! The County foreclosed on the property for unpaid taxes, and realtors were contracted to auction the property off in October 2004. The property could not be shown or sold until the bears were gone, if they were not relocated they would be put down. The Federal and New York State governing agencies had no interest in rescuing them, telling the county to have them put down. The auctioneers took over, they made over 100 telephone calls to wildlife rehabilitators, trying to find a home for the bears. They wound up speaking with a Broward County Florida Sheriffs Office Lieutenant (and animal activist) the Lieutenant in turn contacted the American Sanctuary Association, who referred her to our facility at Peace River Refuge & Ranch Exotic Animal Sanctuary in Florida. Meanwhile, the auctioneers were feeding the bears dog food and fresh fruit on a daily basis, increasing the odds that their bodies would be capable of withstanding the stress of relocation. Over the few weeks it took to make plans, they steadily gained weight. We planned the bear rescue for several weeks and were scheduled to fly to NY less than 36 hours after being directly hit by the third hurricane that season. What poor timing! Of course, our flight had been cancelled, but we managed to fly on standby and still arrived in time to meet the professional animal hauler at the closed attraction to help load the animals and prepare them for their trip. They arrived safely in Florida via professional air-conditioned truck on September 30, 2004. Now they share an almost one acre enclosure with male black bear named Yogi and have really done extremely well in their new enclosure. They enjoy fresh food, fresh water and above all superior nutritional and medical care.

-Brigitte I.
Peace River, FL


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