Ricky, an 18-year-old black bear, has spent her entire life caged in a concrete enclosure outside Jim Mack’s Ice Cream Parlor in Pennsylvania. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) observed and took footage of Ricky with matted hair, eating dog food with only green-looking water available. The bear lives alone on hard concrete 100% of the time, and is forced to endure cold winters. She eats an unnatural, boring diet of dog food and corn.
My partner Matt and I discovered Ricky while stopping at Jim Mack’s for ice cream. We initially thought she was just there for the summer and would soon be returned to a zoo. We soon realized that this was not the case. Her living conditions are so far from what a bear’s natural habitat is that I couldn’t imagine how anyone could keep her like that and not see how obviously wrong it is. She is deprived of everything that is natural and necessary for a bear.
Pennsylvania state regulations require wild animals to receive humane care and treatment, which Ricky does not. Please sign my petition to urge Jim Mack’s Ice Cream Parlor to release Ricky to a sanctuary so she can live the rest of her life with other bears and space to roam free.
You can sign the Care2 petition here