Touring Transactions of Bear World Cubs Through State & Federal Documentation
What happens to Bear World cubs? In August of 2016, one Roger Kuhl lived up to his last name by asking this question in a Letter to the Editor to Idaho Falls’s Post Register. “Every spring Bear World has a new batch of bear cubs,” Kuhl points out, “yet the total population of bears at the facility appears to stay about the same.”
Roger Kuhl, I dedicate this tour through more than a hundred of Bear World’s missing young bears to you. May it serve as a partial answer to your question.
When previously acknowledging Bear World as Idaho’s #1 bear cub mill, I included this note:
The following information is based on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to various state and federal government agencies.
Me – March 15, 2021
To serve as a repository for the fact gatherers and the news desk editors kept up at night by libelous threats, here’s a sampling of those documents. They clearly show cubs born at Bear World who do not stay there throughout their lives, countering a go-to claim made over (2014) and over (2016) and over (2018) and over (2019) and over (2020) again by the theme park’s president (and alarmingly prolific cub breeder), Courtney Ferguson.
2021 Export Document: 1 Bear World Black Bear Cub Shipped to Clark’s Trading Post
bear-world-cubs-to-Clarks-Trading-Post-4-1-2021Clark’s Trading Post is a roadside amusement park in Lincoln, New Hampshire. It’s like a time capsule glimpse into the dancing bear acts of circus shows in the 1940s and earlier. During the tourist season, they keep the black bears in a concrete cage, and then train them to entertain crowds with balancing acts on barrels, scooters, and swings.
Bear World separated a weeks-old cub from her mother to then send her alone across the country.
2021 Export Document: 5 More Black Bear Cubs Shipped to Gregg Woody
bear-world-cubs-to-Gregg-Woody-3-23-2021Check out this previous post to see the horrendous way Gregg Woody treats bears.
2020 Export Document: 6 Black Bear Cubs Shipped to Woody
bear-world-cubs-to-Gregg-Woody-3-20-2020That’s 11 baby bears so far to Woody in the last two years alone.
2019 Export Documents: 18 Black Bears Sent to Woody (12 cubs, one 1-yr-old, three 2-yr-olds, & two 3-yr-olds)
bear-world-cubs-to-woody-2019Make sure to scroll through all three documents included here.
That’s 23 cubs, one 1-year-old, three 2-year-olds, and two 3-year-olds for a running total of 29 bears to Woody in the span of three years.
2018 Export Document: 9 Black Bears Shipped to Woody (three cubs, four 3-yr-olds, & two 4-year-olds)
bear-world-cubs-to-gregg-woody-March-2018This makes 26 cubs, one 1-year-old, three 2-year-olds, six 3-year-olds, and two 4-year-olds for a running total of 38 bears sent to Woody in the span of four years. Bear World has sent nearly 10 bears per year to Woody.
2017 Export Document & USDA Investigation: 10 Black Bear Cubs Sold to Woody While His License Was Suspended
bear-world-cubs-to-woody-during-his-suspension-in-2017First Document: Keeping up with the average, Bear World sold 10 eight-week-old black bear cubs to Gregg Woody (bringing the black bear total up to 48 over the last five years). At this point, Woody had racked up so many Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations that the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) suspended his license to do business in the animal trade.
Second Document: The USDA extended Woody’s suspension to consider permanently revoking his license when their investigation showed him illegally doing business anyway with Bear World.
2017 USDA Investigation Hand-Written Receipt: Woody Sent Two Bears to Be Slaughtered
Woody-Receipt-for-Sending-Two-Bears-to-SlaughterhouseThe USDA included this exhibit in their larger investigation into Woody illegally operating while suspended in 2017. The inspection number for the investigation is 2016082568114686.
Apparently, this receipt is just one of several on file at the USDA. Here’s a highlight from a 2015 news article about yet another investigation into Woody: “there are numerous references within the USDA files of Woody slaughtering bears and African lions.”
2017 Export Document: 2 Black Bear Cubs Sent to Nick Wittje
bear-world-cubs-to-Nick-Wittje-March-2017Nick Wittje runs a traveling petting zoo called Nick’s Barnyard Buddies. It’s also worth noting that Gregg Woody is suspiciously added as the transporter of the cubs. Again, he is not supposed to be involved considering his suspension at the time.
2016 Export Document: 5 Black Bear Cubs Shipped to Woody
bear-world-cubs-to-gregg-woody-2016Five more black bear cubs gives us a caging total of 53 sent to Woody in the last six years.
2016 Export Document: 2 Black Bear Cubs Shipped Via Woody to Kirshner Wildlife Foundation in California
bear-world-cubs-to-kirshner-March-2016Kirshner, like Woody, has a detailed history of AWA violations. I’ve mentioned a couple bear-related examples in a previous post.
2015 Export Document: 9 Black Bear Cubs Shipped to Woody
bear-world-cubs-to-gregg-woody-march-19-2015The caging total now sits at 62 black bears (50 cubs) going to slaughter-prone Woody these last seven years.
2015 Export Document: 2 Black Bear Cubs Sent to Bear Country USA
bear-world-cubs-to-bear-country-usa-April-2015Speaking of slaughter prone, Bear Country USA is a roadside zoo that also has a history of sending bears to be killed for meat and other parts.
2014 Export Document: 14 Black Bears Shipped to Woody (7 cubs, five 2-yr-olds, one 3-yr-old, & one 4-yr-old)
bear-world-cubs-to-gregg-woody-march-2014In eight years, Bear World sent at least 76 black bears (57 cubs) to Gregg Woody.
2013 Import Document: 4 Black Bears Trucked Off in Dog Kennels to Joe Schreibvogel aka Joe Exotic aka the Tiger King
bear-world-cubs-to-joe-exotic-the-tiger-king-in-2013Talk about burying the lead.
2012 Export Document: 8 Black Bear Cubs Shipped to Woody
bear-world-cubs-to-gregg-woody-march-2012I can’t tell you how sick I am of writing this guy’s name. Over the past decade, we know Bear World sent him at least 84 black bears, 65 of which were just weeks- or months-old cubs. Not one bear was older than four.
2009 Export Document: 1 Black Bear Cub Flown to Santa’s Land
bear-world-cub-to-santas-land-2009Note the Delta flight number on this document. Often, when roadside zoos transport captive wildlife by airplane, the animals end up in a cage in the cargo hold for the duration of the trip. Imagine a caged baby bear alone in cargo for a flight across the entire continent.
2003: 1 Brown Bear Cub Sent to Predators in Action According to 2008 USDA Investigation
bear-world-cub-to-Predators-in-Action-2003This testimony given by Randy Miller during a 2008 USDA investigation shows that a brown bear named Rocky came from Bear World five years prior to the questioning. Let’s forgive the USDA its address flub of putting Bear World in Rockburg, IN. They were so close.
2002: 1 Brown Bear Cub Named Brutus Sent to Casey Anderson According to Casey Anderson’s The Story of Brutus
Here’s part of the second paragraph on the first page of Anderson’s book:
I had been working with animals professionally in some respect for about eight years and was now a curator at a drive-through wildlife park in Idaho. Brutus was born in a small man-made cave we had constructed of concrete and steel to give the cubs the feel of being born into a real ‘cave.’ Our replication wasn’t perfect, but it sheltered the tiny newborns from the brutal eastern Idaho winter weather.
Bear World was then and still is now the only “drive-through wildlife park in Idaho,” let alone eastern Idaho more specifically.
Also, this first chapter’s title is “Coco and Corky,” the names of Brutus’s parents at the facility. Coco and Corky were also Bear World’s breeding pair of brown bears. This same chapter ends with details about working with a woman named only as Christine. She was in fact Bear World’s head bear handler. Here’s the first page of a USDA inspection report from 1999 listing both Casey Anderson and her as curators at Bear World.
casey-anderson-working-at-yellowstone-bear-worldOn page 17 of the digital book, Anderson gets more definitive: “when my dreams began to take shape, I started working at Yellowstone Bear World.”
There’s also a 2003 news article out of the Billings Gazette, “Anderson said he has a background of working with bears, including acting as wildlife curator at Yellowstone Bear World near Rexburg, Idaho.”
But how do we know that Brutus the bear was born in 2002? Just after reaching 19 years old and still a decade away from old age for captive bears, Brutus died at the beginning of February this year (2021). Turning 19 in 2021 means he was born in 2002. And, Anderson’s website confirms that Brutus “was born at an overcrowded wildlife park in 2002.”
Reporting about Brutus’s death, NBC Montana quotes Anderson’s current staff saying that “Brutus was rescued from an unethical breeding program when he was two weeks old.”
2000: 3 Brown Bears to Troy Hyde at Animals of Montana
bear-world-cubs-sold-to-Troy-Hyde-in-2000These documents come from a multi-year U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigation that led to several charges being brought against Troy Hyde in Montana and the Krafts (a husband-wife duo) in Minnesota.
Due to the heavy redactions, we see that in “February of 2000, [blank] purchased two grizzly bears, Yosemite and Kluane, from BEAR WORLD in Idaho” and in the same paragraph, “[Blank] agreed to sell Adam to [Blank]. [Blank] received Adam on May 16, 2000. [Blank] transported Adam. Keno, a Siberian tiger, was transported at the same time.”
Also, kind of helpfully, we find that “[Blank] transferred a grizzly bear named Tank to the [Blank] on breeder loan. Tank was originally born at BEAR WORLD in Idaho.”
Luckily, when the USFWS made a press release about their findings, it was not redacted.
bear-world-cubs-mentioned-in-USFWS-indictment-against-Troy-HydeCombining these two sets of documents and paying attention to dates and animal names, we can unredact the above statements to read, “February of 2000, Hyde purchased two grizzly bears, Yosemite and Kluane, from BEAR WORLD in Idaho.” And, “The Krafts agreed to sell Adam to Hyde. Hyde received Adam on May 16, 2000. The Krafts transported Adam. Keno, a Siberian tiger, was transported at the same time.”
As well, “Hyde transferred a grizzly bear name Tank to the Krafts on breeder loan. Tank was originally born at BEAR WORLD in Idaho.”
So, we know at least three brown bears (Yosemite, Kluane/Kluani, and Tank) went from Bear World to Troy Hyde before he then broke multiple federal laws.
Hyde had his USDA license terminated and had to wait two year before applying for another one. Soon after the probation, he was quickly back to racking up dozens of AWA violations.
Now, Montana has revoked Troy Hyde’s state license and is waiting to find out if the state’s Supreme Court will uphold the decision.
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