You may notice I frequently comment on the assumptions people make about animal facilities based on their branding. Frequently, people assume accredited facilities are inherently better for animals than unaccredited facilities, or assume sanctuaries are inherently more moral / better at caring for their animals than zoos.
I want to show you an example of why I am always, always skeptical of these assumptions.
If youāre in the California area, you might have heard about Hank the Tank - who is actually a Henrietta, btw - the 500 pound nuisance bear from Lake Tahoe who broke into 21 homes in search of food. She was recently captured by wildlife officials and moved to a sanctuary in Colorado. The Wild Animal Sanctuary has three main facilities, two in Colorado and one in TX. To give you some context, itās the biggest carnivore sanctuary in the country - they advertise somewhere between 300-500 animals, mostly large carnivores, between their properties. Itās where most of the Tiger King cats went. Itās PETAās preferred placement for confiscated exotic animals. So, obviously, itās got to be great, right? Exceptā¦ take a look at what they posted about Henriettaās arrival.
Hereās their post about Henriettaās arrival at the Refuge, the large facility in Colorado that isnāt open to the public. Letās take a closer look at that food troughā¦
What do we see here? An entire rotisserie chicken that is either blackened or highly seasoned, and a whole ham. Maybe a second chicken underneath the pile, I canāt quite tell. The sanctuary gets the majority of their bear food donated from groceries stores once itās past the sell-by date, so we know those are older meats and theyāre full of a ton of salt. Then, for fruit and veg, thereās a cantaloupe, mango, corn, avocado, grapes, and apples. Maybe a pepper or two, itās hard to tell. Thatās a lot of sugar and not a lot of fiber or roughage.
Butā¦ on top of it and to the rightā¦ are those Twizzlers?
The sanctuary confirmed on Facebook that they fed this recently rescued obese bear what looks like almost an entire pack of Twizzlers.
I donāt know of any world in which itās appropriate to feed candy to a bear. Maybe a piece or two as a really high value reinforcer for hard behaviors (that isnāt relevant here, itās openly against this sanctuaryās ethos to do any husbandry or medical training). An entire pack of Twizzlers is just appalling. But itās not uncommon for this facility! I have a book written about their operations and animal care (that I bought at their gift shop this spring) which openly discusses how the bears get fed bread, doughnuts, marshmallows, and all sorts of incredibly unhealthy food that comes in with the grocery donations.
But hey, this is apparently fine for the bears, according to the sanctuaryās founder. He was quoted in that same book as saying āBears are the only animal I know of that can eat insane amounts of sugar and it never hurts them. It does not hurt their organs. They do not get clogged arteries. They do not have high blood pressure. In the wild they eat all these sweet berries in the fall, and they convert sugar to fatā¦ so the more sugar they get the betterā¦ we would all love to have a system like that!ā
Now while itās true that bears have physiological adaptations that modulate their insulin production and sensitivity in ways that appear to prevent them from from developing diabetes, that doesāt mean itās healthy for them to regularly eat processed carbohydrates, sugar, and general junk food. And remember - Henrietta gained her fame because of how incredibly overweight she already is, and because she was seeking out human food, According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, a healthy weight for a normal adult black bear is between 100-300 pounds. So, obviously, the best thing to do isā¦ continue to feed her candy.
Then, later on in the book, it details how they have to bribe a camel to sit tight for a regular medical examination (since they donāt train for medical behaviors) by letting him drink a can of Mountain Dew each time.
If a zoo was known publicly to be feeding their animals Mountain Dew or a couple Twizzlers - even just once, on a rare occasion - theyād be eviscerated in the media and by public opinion. But feeding out inappropriate junk food appears to be a pretty common practice at this place, and it just goes unscrutinized because everyone assumes sanctuaries are inherently better for animals.
So, long story short, never make assumptions about the quality of a facility based on itās branding or accreditation. (TWAS is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries). If you have concerns about the ethics or practices of a facility, always try to put your preconceptions aside, go and see for yourself, and think critically about what you see and what youāre told.
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