‘Ho, Ho, Horrible!’ Cherokee Bear Zoo Gets Lump of Coal From PETA for Keeping Bears in Barren Pits
For Immediate Release:
December 17, 2024
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Just in time for Christmas, Cherokee Bear Zoo is getting a special delivery from PETA—a “Ho, Ho, Horrible” Award, complete with a certificate of shame and a lump of coal, for confining bears in barren concrete pits and exploiting infant cubs for cruel photo ops, denying them any semblance of a natural life or a scintilla of pleasure.
In nature, bears can travel up to 40 miles a day, but at Cherokee Bear Zoo, black bears and grizzly bears are held in tiny cinderblock pits where they can do nothing but pace in tight circles and beg for food from customers. Ursine experts call these pits “cruel and unusual punishment” and describe the bears’ quality of life as “grossly substandard.” Wild bear cubs stay with their mothers for up to two years, but Cherokee Bear Zoo uses captive-bred cubs taken by force from their upset mothers when they’re just days or weeks old to exploit in paid “encounters.”
“Cherokee Bear Zoo is out of touch with everything we know about bears’ behavior, their needs, and their natural lives, and that’s why they deserve PETA’s ‘Ho, Ho, Horrible’ Award,” says PETA Foundation Senior Director of Captive Wildlife Debbie Metzler. “PETA urges everyone to stay far away from shabby roadside zoos, which deprive animals of all comfort and joy to exploit them for a buck.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
