Video: Rescued Bears Are Thriving One Year Later

For Immediate Release:
January 8, 2019

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

It’s been a year since two bears named Ben and Bogey (aka “Booger”) were moved from Tregembo Animal Park in North Carolina to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado—and as a new PETA video released today reveals, they’ve been thriving in their new sanctuary home.

PETA’s video, filmed before the bears began hibernating for the winter, shows their transformation: Ben once had untreated facial lesions that left him with scarring on both corneas, and at Tregembo, he suffered from painful arthritis that prevented him from entering his pool. Now, he receives expert veterinary treatment and has been able to splash and play in a pond and explore and forage in the grass. Bogey once paced incessantly, obsessively licked her paw, and bit at the bars of her cage—all signs of extreme psychological distress—but now, she no longer engages in any of these types of behavior and has been able to swim and even bob for apples at her leisure.

“Less than a year after they were sprung from a roadside zoo, these bears have been able to swim, splash, play, forage, and thrive in their new sanctuary home,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “These are just two of the 72 bears PETA has helped to rescue from dire situations in the past six years, and that number will keep growing until no bear is locked behind bars in a barren pen or concrete pit.”

The bears’ rescue was the result of a settlement reached in a lawsuit filed by two North Carolina residents who were represented by PETA Foundation lawyers and two local law firms.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment.” For more information, please visit PETA.org.