Stop Mistreatment of Bears at Kane County Fair

The Kane County Fair is hosting a traveling bear act called Welde's Big Bear show. Welde’s act is cruel and unacceptable. Many organizations have campaigned against this outfit for many years.

Bears will only perform frightening tricks, such as riding scooters or balancing on a ball, through physical punishment, fear, and intimidation. Being kept in tiny enclosures causes most bears to go insane. Captive bears spend much of the day pacing, walking in tight circles, swaying or rolling their heads, and showing other signs of psychological distress. Using these bears in a tawdry sideshow is cruel and doesn’t showcase any of their natural behavior or intelligence.

Welde admits that he has hand-raised most of his bears from infancy. This means that the babies were forcibly removed from their mothers within days of birth. Bears have strong maternal instincts, and premature separation is psychologically cruel to both the infants and their mothers. It also deprives the babies of the maternal care needed for normal physical and mental development.

Animal exhibitors touring the fair circuit follow a tight schedule. The logistics of fulfilling multiple contracts does not allow for downtime to let animals rest or exercise or to attend to sick or injured animals. It’s impossible to know how many animals suffer and die en route from fair to fair, because the caravans are constantly on the move, and for the most part, no one is watching.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees traveling animal shows, but with fewer than 100 inspectors covering the country, it’s virtually impossible to regularly monitor these exhibitors. Innumerable small-town venues lack a veterinarian with expertise in exotic animals, and animals who are ill or injured may go untreated. Many animals are inexpensive to procure, making it cheaper to replace them than to pay for veterinary care or lose time attending to a sick animal.

We will sending this petition to the Kane County Fair Association as well as the 9 corporate sponsors represented at the fair. We hope to gather at least 10,000 signatures.

Please help by signing this petition and sharing with as many people as possible.