Canadian Zoo Faces Charges For Taking One-year-old Bear For Ice Cream (Watch Video)
Alberta Fish and Wildlife weren't angered how the bear went out for the cone but that the authorities were not notified about it.
A Canadian private zoo has been fined for taking a one-year-old bear, Berkley to a local Dairy Queen for ice-cream treats. Discovery Wildlife Park in northern Alberta garnered eyeballs on social media after they posted a video of the baby Kodiak bear, Berkley, being fed vanilla ice cream cone at a drive-through window. The video shows the bear patiently waiting for the ice-cream and licking when the fast food chain employee sticks out some on a spoon.
Discovery Wildlife Park, based in Innisfail in Canada shared the video triggering debates on social media. Fish and Wildlife accused the zoo as well as owners Doug Bos and Debbie Rowland for violating the terms of its license. Alberta Fish and Wildlife weren't angered how the bear went out for the cone but that the authorities were not notified about it. After the outrage, the park apologised and pulled down the video from Facebook.
However, the zoo has hit at critics, saying that Berkley was not a wild bear but had been born and raised in captivity. The time when they went to get ice cream, the Dairy Queen was not even open to the public, they said. A video of Berkley licking off an ice cream cake was also removed from their account.
Discovery Wildlife Park owners are now facing two charges; one for failing to inform officials they were taking the bear for ice cream, and another, dating from 2017 when staff would take a newly orphaned Berkley home at night so he could be bottle fed. Owner Doug Bos said he was embarrassed and admits they made a mistake, saying they simply forgot. He plans to plead guilty to the charges.
Watch the video here:
The Guardian quoted Doug Bos as saying, "I am glad that they followed through with it because it shows how strictly regulated the zoo industry is in the province. Because there are so many people out there that think it's not, they think anybody can just do anything they want. We've done lots of TV commercials, Super Bowl commercials with bears and food … Some of them the bear was in a grocery store and wandered up and down the aisles. These bears aren't just your average bear that we go snag out of the wild and do this."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 10, 2018 05:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).