STATUS OF BEAR WELFARE

Status of Bear Welfare in Cherokee, North Carolina
UNCONTROLLED PUBLIC FEEDING
Public feeding was a serious issue. All three facilities encouraged visitors to purchase food to
feed to the bears. At CSBP and CBZ, chopped apples, bread, and iceberg lettuce on a small
recyclable cardboard tray were being sold to the public to feed to the bears. Food dispensers
containing dog chow were evident at CSBP and SL. At CSBP and CBZ, the public threw the food
into the pits. At SL, food was either thrown into cages or dropped into a PVC tube leading to the
cages. The tube feeders appeared difficult to clean and disinfect, and all the feeders were dirty
(photos 8A and 8B). Visitors could easily give the animals food items that they brought from
outside the zoo.
In addition to encouraging abnormal begging behavior and intraspecific competition and
aggression, it was impossible for the handlers to know exactly what quantity of food and caloric
intake each bear consumes per day. Many of the bears appeared hungry and were apparently
not being fed enough food to satiate them throughout the day.
Food tossed into the pits can be contaminated by unsanitary handling or as a result of landing in
pools, puddles, or excrement. The paper food trays were being collected and presumably reused,
likely without being sanitized after each use. The female staff member at CSBP who was cutting
the food and arranging it on the trays was not wearing gloves (photo 8C). The people who were
throwing the food at the bears were not wearing gloves. This means that bacteria were constantly
being transferred from members of the public to the bears. Human children, who are notorious for
not washing their hands, pelted foods at the bears all day long. Zoo professionals wear gloves in
food preparation areas in order to minimize the risks of contaminating foods and transmitting
zoonotic diseases.
This form of public feeding introduces unnecessary competitive stress between the bears and
sets the animals up for incompatibility. In every group of two or more bears, there is always one
dominant animal. Subordinate bears will get fewer calories. Numerous instances of aggression
between individuals were observed. For example, there was tension between the adult bears at
SL during feeding time. The larger of the two finished his single, piled feeding first and then
displaced the other (presumably the female) from her pile as she complained. At SL, one cub was
observed spending excessive amounts of time positioned at the end of one of feeding tubes,
perhaps “guarding” a preferred feeding site.
Encouraging the public to toss food at the bears, coupled with the open air space above all the
pits, permitted the introduction of any number of foreign objects that may be ingested by the
novelty-deprived bears and could potentially lead to indigestion, toxicities, intestinal blockages,
intestinal perforations, and even death. Signs disallowing such practices fail because they make
three false assumptions: (1) All visitors are literate, (2) all visitors can read English, and (3) all
people obey signs. Children, many too young or too distracted to read signs and not old enough
to be responsible, are the most likely to commit infractions.
The public feeding must be stopped, and all foods must be presented in enrichment-style
feedings (through scatter feeds, puzzle feeders, lunch-sized bags and boxes, and any other
enrichment format that encourages normal bear foraging behavior).
AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORT OF CHIEF SAUNOOKE BEAR PARK, CHEROKEE BEAR ZOO, AND SANTA’S LAND | 27