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there: Rescuers say mascots deserve to live in nature
 From
sideline to sanctuary: Bears picnic there
Rescuers say mascots deserve to live in
nature.
by Scott Huddleston, San
Antonio Express-News
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Boerne, Texas — Scotty used to thrill
Baylor University football fans and youth groups, riding a
bicycle or downing cookies and soda.
Now he's just "the male black bear,"
said Lynn Cuny, executive director of Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation.
In 1991, when the bear was 18 months old and
more unruly, Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife officials
asked the nonprofit sanctuary to take him.
When the ex-mascot arrived at Wildlife Rescue,
he had no serious injuries, but he cowered frequently, said
Tim Ajax, the sanctuary's animal care director.
The American black bear, which weighs about
450 pounds, soon will move to larger environs about 20 miles
northeast of here inKendalia. Wildlife Rescue hopes to have
him and two female companions, once part of roadside zoo displays,
in new digs by late December.
The facility allows minimal contact between
its Staff and the bears, and it is closed to the public.
"Animals are simply not here to entertain
us," Cuny said. "This is something our institutes
of higher learning should be able to understand."
Baylor, which recently limited use of its
bears at football games, has acknowledged problems with its
mascot program and has vowed to improve life for bears on
the Waco campus.
The university plans to raise $800,000 to
add grass, trees and space to its 27-year-old concrete bear
pit. The design is nearly complete.
"The timeline depends on the fund raising,"
Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley said. "In the 1970s, we
built a new bear facility that then was state of the art.
But there's been recognition for several years that we needed
to upgrade that facility."
Baylor now has two adult females, and it will
not acquire any more bears until the project is built, Brumley
said. The university had its first appearance of a live bear
this season at the Nov. 8 homecoming game against Texas Tech.
"It would not be correct to say there
never again will be a bear at any games," Brumley said.
Activists with Showing Animals Respect and
Kindness, or SHARK, have accused Baylor of keeping its bears
in a poorly kept pit with a dangerous drop-off. The group
says having the bears at games severely stresses them, causing
them to pace.
 Brumley
said the bears get quality care from a student fraternity
under the direction of Texas A&M veterinarians and a California
trainer, and under state wildlife and U.S. Department of Agriculture
regulations.
In recent years, students stopped giving
them sweets and sodas, and they ended a yearly event near
the bear pit that featured skits and music.
At Wildlife Rescue, the bear is prone to boredom,
but he has balls and boxes to entertain him, along with perfumed
hay bales to tear into and trees to snap with his powerful
body.
He eats 10–15 pounds a day of fruits,
meat, fish, vegetables and an occasional nutritious treat.
The bear and his penmates will have about
three times as much space when they move to a 1.5-acre area
encircled by an electric fence.
The bears can't return to the wild, experts
say, because their exposure to humans makes them easy prey
for hunters, and a perceived threat to anyone else.
As the male bear sits quietly, one of the
females sniffs through the enclosure. Ajax advises against
reaching to pet her.
"She doesn't need us in that sense,"
he said. "It's not their nature, instinctively, to be
buddy-buddy with people."
Meanwhile, Baylor officials say the university's
86-year-old tradition of live mascots will continue.
"It's a cherished tradition, and we're
committed to giving them the best of care," university
spokesman Brumley said.
shuddleston@express-news.net
Copyright © 2003 San
Antonio Express-News
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