Beartastic News: Obese Bear Rescued From Pennsylvania Sportsmen’s Club Recovering In Colorado

[Sugar Cookie]

An overweight Asiatic Black Bear with a troubled past is getting the help and care he needs on Colorado’s eastern Plains.

The bear, whose name is Dillan, was living inside a small enclosure at the Union County Sportsmen’s Club in Pennsylvania.

“He’s been there for possibly decades,” said Kent Drotar with the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg.

Dillan was subjected to the continuous sound of gunfire - his cage was situated about 200 feet away from a shooting range, according to officials.

His enclosure also had inadequate water and only featured concrete. Dillan was also declawed and has significant health problems, including bad teeth, infected gums and a weight problem.

“He’s incredibly large. We estimate he’s hundreds of pounds overweight. Just obese,” Drotar told KDVR.

After receiving pressure from several organizations and tens of thousands of people from across the nation (including actor Alec Baldwin), the sportsmen’s club decided to release Dillan on Monday.

On Tuesday, Dillan was transferred to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, where he’s currently receiving medical help from the sanctuary’s clinic.

“We’re going to take care of that [medical issues] and he’ll soon be out in a large-acreage habitat,” Drotar said.

The sanctuary is hoping to send Dillan to its refuge in southern Colorado this spring, where he’ll get to spend the rest of his life in a 30-40 acre area with another rescued Asiatic Black Bear.

Obese bear rescued from Pennsylvania sportsmen's club recovering in Colorado

fox6now.com

 

[cubby]

Sportsmen, they are not. But glad they finally decided to do the right thing.

May Dillan enjoy the rest of his life in peace and tranquility.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

I wish they could be charged with animal cruelty.

It might deter other idiots from doing the same to other wild animals.

 

[Craygor]

After receiving pressure from ..... actor Alec Baldwin .....

I was all for releasing that moon bear, until I saw Alec Baldwin put himself into the controversy. Fuck Baldwin, he's a fucking tool.

 

[Freyja]

And you would think that animals kept in captivity would be kept there to help preserve their species, but this has done more harm than good and poor Dillan has paid the price. He should have been left in the wilderness where he belongs.

 

[Sejanus]

There are always animal rehabs and sanctuaries if folks look hard enough and are motivated.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

By all accounts, Dillan the bear, who was caged for decades at the Union County Sportsmen’s Club near Millmont, Pa., is now living the life at a rescue sanctuary in Colorado.

Rebecca Smudzinski, a senior captive wildlife specialist for the animal rights group PETA, says Dillan is climbing trees, swimming and foraging for food. He even has a female companion named, Lilly, another bear rescued from a small zoo.

It’s a far cry from what Smudzinski says was Dillan’s hellish, nearly fatal, life inside a cage at the club.

PETA says the black bear grew fat and unhealthy on leftover bar and restaurant food, lack of exercise and the inability to hibernate due to his proximity to the club’s noisy gun range.

By the time Dillan was rescued in mid-January, Smudzinski says the blubbery bear had ballooned to 857 pounds. She contends Dillan was a death’s doorstep due to his caged lifestyle and allegedly shoddy care.

Pat Craig, director of the sanctuary that now houses Dillan, stated in a PETA press release that “in his 40 years of rescuing captive wildlife, Dillan’s dental disease was the most severe and advanced that he has ever seen and that he was, by far, the most obese bear of the more than 300 the organization has rescued.”

But mere months at his new home has made Dillan a new bear, PETA officials say.

“It’s been an amazing transformation,” Smudzinski said in a phone interview Thursday with PennLive. “Dillan’s incessant rocking has stopped. He is curious, and he lives with another rescued bear.”

In other words, all’s well that ends well – right?

Not so fast.

PETA, which put up billboards and mounted an aggressive public relations campaign to pressure the club into releasing Dillan back in January, is now stepping up the heat on Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania State Police to criminally charge club officials responsible for the alleged neglect of the bear.

“The responsible parties must be punished for Dillan’s suffering, including a permanent ban on owning animals,” Smudzinski said.

Continue reading at link

Despite Dillan the bear’s happy ending, PETA pushes for criminal charges against Pa. sportsmen’s club that held him

By all accounts, Dillan the bear, caged for decades, is now living the life. But PETA still wants a Pa. club to pay.

www.pennlive.com

 

[knockout]

Fuck peta, worse animal abuse assholes on the planet

 

[Sevens My Charm]

@knockout I think their excessive asshattery out does the good things they do like Dillon