Benjamin Coultier was just 24 years old when he was mauled to death by a frustrated captive bear. He was cleaning the animal's cage as part of his job at Animals of Montana, a company that rents out wild animals for photo shoots as well as film and television productions. 

iStockphoto.com/Enter6

PETA had asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to investigate because it appeared that the company's owner, Troy Hyde, had allowed his employees to be in direct contact with the animals, in violation of federal workplace-safety laws. Following PETA's request, OSHA found that Hyde had twice violated the law. He had Coultier clean the bear's cage without first moving the animals to a holding pen, which directly resulted in the young man's death, and he failed to report the attack promptly after it occurred. An investigation by state officials uncovered more problems at Animals of Montana, including numerous unreported escapes and an attack on an employee by a mountain lion. The employee sustained a gash in his head that went all the way to his skull, but Hyde reported it as a "scratch."

OSHA wants to see Hyde pay the maximum penalty for a small company, a $9,000 fine. It would be a small measure of justice for the man who lost his life and the bear who was gunned down after the attack.

What You Can Do

If you have witnessed unsafe or inhumane conditions at a live-animal attraction or photo opportunity, please let PETA know. 

Update: The Cherokee tribal council's meeting to discuss the closure of the bear pits was postponed until Tuesday, March 19th at 5 p.m. because of bad weather, so please keep letting the council know that public opinion is on the side of the bears. To contact the council members, click on the "Take Action Now" button below.

The following was originally posted on March 5, 2013:

After PETA publicized the findings of our investigation at Chief Saunooke Bear Park, several tribal elders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—which owns the land on which Chief Saunooke and other bear pits are located but does not run them—were horrified to learn of the conditions there.

Led by Peggy Hill, a group of elders has proposed a resolution to close all the bear exhibitors on tribal land permanently, and the tribal council is poised to vote on the resolution at its next council meeting this week. Hill told the Associated Press that "[m]ost Cherokee people had no idea what was taking place behind the bars of these roadside zoos" and that the elders are appalled "at the horrible treatment of these jailed bears."

Unfortunately, not everyone is on board with the plan. Chief Saunooke is currently closed, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended its license, but some in the community are pressuring the council to keep the other bear pits open. One of the facilities, Cherokee Bear Zoo, is also making a last-ditch bid for survival by claiming that it wants to remodel itself as a "sanctuary," although if this were its plan, there was nothing stopping it from doing so during all the years that it has been confining bears to barren concrete pits and racking up numerous violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The bear exhibitors in Cherokee have proved time and again that they shouldn't have any contact with animals. 

You Can Help

Please contact the Cherokee tribal council and urge it to vote in favor of the resolution to close the bear pits permanently and send the bears to reputable sanctuaries.

As President Barack Obama began a tour of the country to talk about jobs and the economy, PETA met him in Asheville, North Carolina, and presented him with a job description of our own:

While the president spoke to Asheville residents about lowering the unemployment rate, PETA asked him to grant retirement to the bears who are suffering in another part of the state in squalid roadside bear pits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently suspended the operating license of one of the pits, the Chief Saunooke Bear Park, after PETA filed multiple complaints about animal abuse there. The USDA cited the bear pit for, among other abuse, denying the bears adequate food and veterinary care.   

Obviously, the Secret Service took stock of our bear and her message. Here's hoping the POTUS realizes soon that these bears want to be unemployed, like, now!  

Not since a pig farmer told our investigator, "Hurt 'em! There's nobody [who] works for PETA out here," have we recorded so many dumb statements on camera.

Yesterday, we told you how, following PETA's investigation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Chief Saunooke Bear Park and suspended its exhibitor license. These are some of the conversations that helped land the bear abusers in hot water:

1. Bears Biting the Metal Bars

They know the bears are miserable.

2. Hiding Things From the USDA

I'm sure the USDA loved this.

3. Not Feeding the Bears

Jerks!

4. Eating the Bears

Whaaaaat?!

5. Discrimination Against Native Americans (Who Own the Park Land)

That must have gone over well with the landlord.

6. Your Questionable Work Ethic

Things that don't go well together: impaired awareness and handling bears.

7. How to Treat a Lady

Susan's laughing now!

8. OK, so Now Pick Your Jaw Up off the Floor

These guys are so dumb that they could get their own reality show.

9. And Take Action for Bears!

The bear pit has been indefinitely shut down, but we still need your voice to ensure that the animals are safe for good. Sign the petition to request that the USDA immediately confiscate all the bears from the Chief Saunooke Bear Park and place them in a safe, reputable sanctuary.

After PETA filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) at Chief Saunooke Bear Park, the bear pit must now surrender its exhibitor license. What's more, the license will remain suspended until the dismal facility is able to prove that it's compliant with AWA regulations—if it ever can.

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians joined PETA in meeting with the USDA to detail the problems at the Cherokee, North Carolina, roadside zoo. Following our complaints and meeting, the USDA charged the bear pit with more than a dozen violations. Now, the park has agreed to pay a fine and surrender its license in order to settle the case. It's probably a smart move, considering that in a 62-page report that PETA gave to the USDA, bear experts who visited the facility documented that, among other violations, the park was failing to maintain adequate barriers between bears and the public, leading to at least two attacks on visitors thus far. According to the experts, the park also failed to supply food for its public feedings that met the bears' nutritional needs and instead allowed visitors to feed them cat food and Lucky Charms cereal. Among many other abuses, the facility also failed to provide the bears with veterinary care and forced them to eat from filthy, unsanitary food containers.

Barely a month ago, a PETA investigation revealed that staff members were deliberately depriving bears of food and that the animals are so stressed from being constantly confined to small, concrete pits that they pace repeatedly and gnaw at the metal cage bars. Our investigation also uncovered drug use, racism, wage-law violations, and more.

Please ask the USDA to take the next step and confiscate the abused bears. 

Update:

We're happy to report a favorable development in this case: A court has denied a motion by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to dismiss the lawsuit brought against the agency by PETA, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), and two Fayetteville-area residents seeking to overturn the USDA's renewal of Jambbas Ranch Tours' license to continue to operate the wretched roadside zoo that has racked up dozens of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

The ruling comes in the wake of the recent high-profile rescue of Ben the bear, who now resides in a spacious habitat at a sanctuary in California, thanks to the ruling in the earlier lawsuit mentioned below.

PETA's challenge to the licenses will move forward, but the animals at Jambbas have no time to lose—please urge USDA officials to revoke Jambbas' license immediately and offer these animals the chance to live out their lives with the kind of comfort and dignity that Ben now enjoys.

Originally posted on April 19th, 2012:

Citizens of Cumberland County, North Carolina, who are sickened by Jambbas Ranch Tours' pervasive neglect and abuse of animals have joined PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund in suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over its renewal of Jambbas' license despite chronic violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

The AWA allows an animal exhibitor or dealer to have his or her license renewed only if the person's business operates in accordance with AWA regulations. But the USDA has repeatedly renewed Jambbas' license despite the fact that every single inspection of the roadside zoo between October 2006 and January 2012 resulted in citations for AWA violations including the following:

• Failing to provide animals with veterinary care—dead goats were also found lying near live ones
• Allowing bison to be swarmed by flies until their skin was so irritated that they licked and bit at it, exposing raw flesh
• Forcing potbellied pigs to live in enclosures with "excessive accumulation of feces"
• Forcing goats to live in enclosures covered with a "layer of feces," which left them with no clean place to lie down.

This is the second pending lawsuit involving Jambbas Ranch. The other suit seeks to have an abused bear named Ben removed from Jambbas and relocated to a sanctuary where PETA has made arrangements for him to live. In this sad video, Ben paces in his barren cage, bites the chain-link fencing, pushes against it, and tries to reach under it—behavior a bear expert has identified as a cry for help:

In asking the USDA not to renew Jambbas' license, PETA also pointed out several violations of the AWA that relate to Ben, including a lack of adequate space, which is likely causing his repetitive, abnormal behavior.

Jambbas is clearly not qualified to possess an AWA license. We will keep you updated as the lawsuit progresses.

After the latest in a long, sad parade of attacks on humans by frustrated captive animals, PETA is submitting a complaint to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) asking for an investigation and, if appropriate, citations. Benjamin Cloutier, 24, died after being mauled by two captive-bred grizzly bears in their enclosure at Animals of Montana, owned by Troy Hyde, which provides wild animals for photo shoots and film and television productions. 

Humans, Wildlife, Cages, and Neglect: A Formula for Disaster

Direct contact between humans and wild animals kept in captivity is a known safety risk, as reflected in the string of prominent incidents involving captive animals, including bears, chimpanzees, elephants, and orcas, in recent years. Just two years ago, another 24-year-old man died after being attacked by a bear owned by Sam Mazzola. 

Hyde previously had his Animal Welfare Act exhibitor's license suspended for two years after illegally trafficking in endangered tigers in violation of the Endangered Species Act, and now he appears to have violated the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which requires that Hyde furnish employees, like Cloutier, with a work environment free from recognized hazards. Cloutier's death could have been prevented if Hyde had employed the industry-standard "protected contact" system, which uses barriers and temporary holding cages to prevent direct physical encounters between bears and caretakers, effectively eliminating the likelihood of employee injury or death. Instead, with no such system in place, Cloutier endured violent trauma and died from massive blood loss.

What You Can Do

Like humans, other animals are autonomous beings with their own needs and desires, not props for our amusement. Never buy a ticket to films that feature captive wild animals. And if you have witnessed cruelty or neglect behind the scenes at a film or television production, an ad shoot, a live-animal attraction, or a training facility, please let PETA know. 

"If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits

 in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them."

—Phil Pastoret

OK, dogs can count, so is it any surprise that bears, with their larger brains, are even better at it? That's the assessment, published in the journal Animal Behavior, from a recent study showing that black bears possess mathematical skills comparable to those of primates—which makes it even sadder to think of all the bears who are counting every day spent in misery, squalor, and utter frustration.

No 'Wonder' They're Miserable

Take the bears held prisoner at Florida's Everglades Wonder Gardens. A few years back, after repeated reports about the horribly inadequate conditions in which they were living, PETA contacted the owner of the sad "attraction," asking him to make at least a few basic improvements, but none were forthcoming. After a visit to the dreadful roadside zoo, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk described the animals' plight:

That's how these perceptive social animals—who in their natural habitats would spend their days foraging, climbing, cleaning, and exploring—are forced to spend their lives.

Many of you joined PETA in celebrating the recent liberation of Ben the bear, who went from a similarly deficient situation in captivity to a lush new life at a sanctuary. Now, it's time to help the bears at Everglade Wonder Gardens; the Cherokee, North Carolina, bear zoos; and other roadside hellholes gain their freedom, too!

What You Can Do

Captive bears are counting on each of us to do our part to help them. Please politely urge federal and Cherokee authorities to take immediate action to help the animals in bear parks. And any time you pass a roadside zoo, just keep on driving.

PETA has submitted a 64-page petition, which includes case studies, photographs, and expert statements, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking the agency to create and apply specific regulations for bears held captive in appalling conditions by exhibitors, dealers, and research facilities. By allowing bears to be kept in squalid cages and concrete pits and denied everything that is natural and important to them, the USDA is clearly failing to ensure anything close to humane treatment of captive bears, in violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Changing the Regulations to Reflect Reality

Last month, PETA successfully used legal action to rescue a bear named Ben, who was kept for six long years at Jambbas Ranch in a cramped cage with a concrete floor. Ben was fed dry dog food once a day and spent most of his waking hours pacing the few square feet allotted to him. Despite Ben's obvious suffering and multiple complaints from PETA and others, USDA inspectors failed to cite Jambbas for violations related to Ben. In state court, however, a judge ruled that the conditions in which he was being kept constituted cruelty to animals, proving that the federal AWA isn't preventing cruelty to captive bears.

While Ben's story has a happy ending, hundreds of other bears will continue to languish in squalid conditions unless the USDA takes action. Roadside zoos like Jambbas and the Cherokee Bear Zoo account for the majority of USDA licensees with captive bears. These shabby facilities keep bears in tiny barren cages or concrete pits with woefully inadequate space, lack of physical or mental stimulation, and inappropriate diets and in conditions that deny the bears any opportunity to engage in natural behavior, such as hibernating and foraging. Because their needs aren't being met, many bears in roadside zoos spend most of their time pacing, cage-biting, and head-butting, which experts agree are signs of distress.

Bears Need Their Space—and Much More

Bears have a natural life span of up to three decades, and some species can have a home range of thousands of miles. According to the International Zoo Yearbook, "[I]t is recognized that bears are extremely difficult and challenging creatures to manage in the captive environment"—just as challenging, according to studies, as primates. For example, in a study of 33 carnivorous species, bears showed the most evidence of stress and psychological dysfunction in captivity. An Oxford University study ultimately concluded that "the keeping of naturally wide-ranging carnivores should be either fundamentally improved or phased out." But the requirements for bears' care currently fall under the AWA's minimum regulations for a wide variety of unspecified species, and the USDA is failing to use these generic regulations to protect bears.

In addition to a specific prohibition on keeping bears in abysmal concrete pit–style enclosures, PETA has proposed regulations that would require that bears be furnished with naturalistic habitats, dens for nesting and hibernation, pools for bathing, enough room to forage and explore, enrichment, and other elements that would improve bears' mental and physical well-being.

What You Can Do

Speak up for bears in captivity! Please join PETA in urging the USDA to formulate bear-specific standards to be added to the AWA.

In a moving TV news report about two bear cubs orphaned near Cherokee, North Carolina, who were rehabilitated and released into their native habitat, Cherokee Chief Michell Hicks commented, "It makes you feel good to know that you were able to help an animal that was in an unfortunate situation." PETA wants Chief Hicks to feel even better, so we're asking him to help other bears in unfortunate situations: those who are languishing in Cherokee's squalid bear pits. 

Unbearable Conditions

The three roadside zoos on the reservation—Cherokee Bear Zoo, Chief Saunooke Park, and Santa's Land—have all received numerous U.S. Department of Agriculture citations for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including failing to provide veterinary care, feeding bears moldy food, exposing bears to electrical outlets and sharp metal, and leaving bears' fur caked with feces.

But despite the citations, the bears are still kept in barren concrete cages, where they exhibit neurotic behaviors brought on by the stress of intense confinement, such as pacing, walking in circles, crying, and begging tourists for food.

What You Can Do

Chief Hicks said the rehabilitation of the bear cubs showed the kind hearts of the Cherokee people. Ask him to extend that compassion to all bears by working to close the Cherokee bear pits and retire the animals to sanctuaries.