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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has put up a billboard along Interstate 26 near Asheville that calls Cherokee bear zoos "prisons" and shows a little girl crying with a bloody bandage on her hand. The sign is the latest offensive in a two-year battle between the animal-rights group and the zoos.
If I was a bear I sure wouldn't want to be stuck in one. Its nothing like the nature center. The nature center actually treats them like real animals, feeds them decent diets, and lets them hang out in a natural area, not a concrete pit.
The Cherokee bear pits treat them like a display, allowing people to feed them lucky charms and such for a fee. There is even a cub on display at all times to have pictures taken with, they must have at least 2 new cubs a year for that to work.... makes you wonder what happens to all of them once they lose their cuteness..
Its pretty disgusting honestly and it gives Cherokee's a bad name. I think its really stupid of them to not 1)do away with it or 2)improve the conditions to resemble more of the nature center.
We saw a bear in a cage from the street in Cherokee. We didn't go in to the "zoo" because it looked like a horribly sad situation for the bears, and I certainly didn't want to support that. I snapped a photo of the caged bear. If I can find it later, I'll post it. I don't think we could tell how large the cage was, but the bear was pacing back and forth when we went by the first time, and still doing that when we went by an hour or so later.
Thanks for the pic and video: That is so sad and shows the Cherokee are no longer about protecting what came with land but what they can earn in their pocket. Bad enough they have bear statues that are in gawdy colors but they have all that land they could built nice woodsy park for these bears.
I never been fan of Peta but I am behind their efforts to shut this place down.
This place is just a mockery of their drama Onto These Hills.
I'm not really sure how the bear zoos like this are allowed to operate
I don't know this for sure, but I imagine it has to do with this "zoo" being run by an Indian tribe. In some ways, Indian Reservations are technically sovereign and U.S. laws and regulations don't apply to them. That's how we get casino's on Indian Reservations when they'd be illegal if you and I tried to start one.
I visited one of those attractions with the bears some years ago while on vacation in NC and was appalled. It was one bear in a very small all cement enclosure with no water. When I returned home I sent emails to everyone I could think of including PETA and they said there really wasn't anything they could do because it wasn't illegal for them to have bears. I can barely stand to drive through the Cherokee area now without wanting to cry. So glad someone is trying to do something about it.
Thank you, thank you for bringing this up!! Grrrrr! Like all of you, I'm completely sickened that these people can be so utterly cruel to our native black bear. They claim they rely on the bear "attraction" for their local economy. Puhleeez. If I roll my eyes anymore they're going to implode. The local casino brings in a cool $380 million per year. I think they could handle losing a few roadside bear torture camps.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 07-29-2011 at 10:25 PM..
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Thank you, thank you for bringing this up!! Grrrrr! Like all of you, I'm completely sickened that these people can be so utterly cruel to our native black bear. They claim they rely on the bear "attraction" for their local economy. Puhleeez. If I roll my eyes anymore they're going to implode. The local casino brings in a cool $380 million per year. I think they could handle losing a few roadside bear torture camps.
Ahem...uh..."these people"...."our native" black bear?
Couple things to keep in perspective, no matter what we might think of this...
1) They are a lot more native than most of us will ever be...
2) Whatever "torture" you think they are putting the bears through pales in comparison to the torture and slaughter of their people by the white man.
3) The $380 million brought in by the casino gets distributed throughout the tribe. Shall we tell individual Cherokee that they must survive on that alone, or maybe we've done enough to them and we should let them earn as they see fit?
Again, I'm not saying this makes it right. But I'm guessing that every time one of them hears the pathetic whining from animal rights loons, they have a nice giggle about what they consider torture.
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