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Bears
get home to roam in Kendalia
by Scott Huddleston, San
Antonio Express-News
Saturday, May 6, 2006
As two American black bears stretched out
in their new home north of San Antonio, they felt grass under
their paws and sunshine on their furry faces.
After years in cages in a darkened barn,
it might have been just a bit overwhelming.
The two female bears are among 16 wild animals
— 11 bears, two tigers, two feral hogs and a macaw —
seized April 20 in Gonzales County. Besides a tiger sent to
a North Texas sanctuary, the bears are the only ones in a
permanent home.
Lynn Cuny, executive director of Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation in Kendalia, offered to take one
bear. Officials of the Houston SPCA, which helped Gonzales
County with the seizure, talked her into two.
"They were in such horrendous living
conditions that we couldn't say no," Cuny said.
The bears arrived in Kendalia the day of the
raid. The 12-year-old bear ambled to a stand of junipers for
a two-day nap, and has been reclusive. The other, 18, has
roamed their half-acre enclosure, next to one where three
other bears are living.
Most of the seized animals had been in roadside
zoos, wildlife parks and Renaissance festivals. After the
owner's federal exhibitor's permit was suspended in 1997,
he kept them in a poultry barn in a rural area, said Gonzales
County Sheriff Glen Sachtleben.
County officials first contacted the owner,
David T. Richtman, in 2000, he said. The state's 2001 Dangerous
Wild Animal Act, which set enclosure standards for exotics
and required they be registered, gave them legal muscle to
move in.
After commissioners agreed to convey ownership
of the animals to the Houston SPCA, the county became the
first in Texas to use the 2001 law to justify a major seizure,
Sachtleben said.
The county moved in for the animals' sake,
but couldn't afford to care for them, he said.
"The holding enclosures were simply too
small, excruciatingly small," in the barn, the sheriff
said.
As for the future of the other animals, since
many sanctuaries are full, "I don't know where this is
going," Sachtleben said.
The Houston Zoo is temporarily keeping a tiger
and two bears, while the Houston SPCA is caring for most of
the other animals, and trying to find permanent homes. Fort
Worth's Humane Society of North Texas is temporarily housing
two bears.
Richtman, 53, was charged with Class C misdemeanors
for failing to comply with county court orders. He said he's
regained custody of the hogs. None of the animals ever suffered,
he said.
Richtman said he entered the animals' cages
and "played with them" daily, giving them tires
or boards as playthings, when he could watch them. He said
animal-rights groups led the move to seize them, putting their
future in question.
"Their philosophy is that animals are
more pure than human beings are," Richtman said. "This
is a philosophical rift."
He said he'd owned bears since 1975, and had
them in cages that were 5 feet by 8 feet and 5 feet high,
with larger ones in 12-foot-long cages. Though opportunities
to show them dropped off in the late '90s, Richtman, while
working at night loading and unloading grocery trucks to fund
the animals' care, said he hoped to get his exhibitor's permit
reinstated and find new business.
When his parents died in 2000 and 2001, "not
even then did I leave these animals more than one or two days
at a time," he said.
Alice Sarmiento, the Houston SPCA's vice president
of development, said the bears "couldn't even stand up"
and lacked water, but were not underweight when seized.
Heather Bern, spokesman for the Humane Society
of North Texas, said animals will suffer as long as they're
used for entertainment.
"Until people understand that animals
are not here as entertainment commodities, the cycle's going
to continue," she said. "They really need to be
in the wild, and shown the respect and dignity they deserve."
The bears can't return to the wild, since
they've been around humans and lack hunting skills. But the
two in Kendalia will live out their lives in a natural enclosure
with water basins, balls, and scented sheets and pillows,
for stimulation and comfort.
A one-acre enclosure with 10-foot, low-voltage
electrified fencing costs about $80,000, said Angela Grimes,
operations director at Wildlife Rescue. Food, staffing and
cleaning costs about $250 per month per bear, which weigh
300–450 pounds.
The sanctuary plans to slowly introduce the
two bears to their neighbors — two females and a neutered
male that once was a Baylor mascot. The pair have growled
at each other but not shown any teeth, Cuny said.
Though generally no fan of zoos, Cuny recommends
zoos accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association
for those wanting to see wild animals. Many places that display
exotics are not accredited.
"And people patronize them all the time,"
Cuny said. "People actually pay so that animals can be
abused, and there's nothing about it that's acceptable."
shuddleston@express-news.net
Copyright © 2006 San
Antonio Express-News
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