The Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, California has a long history of mistreatment of the animals in their zoo.
Instead of improving the living conditions of the animals currently incarcerated there, the zoo now plans to acquire and imprison bears and mountain lions as early as 2022. They even have the Bear River Casino offering to fund this machination.
I moved to #humboldt in 1980 when I was 10 years old. The first time I walked through the front entrance to the Sequoia Park Zoo my heart sank and my stomach ached. What I saw in front of me made me physically sick. There were two black bears in a small cage and they were pacing. There was no greenery in the cage, no enrichment of any kind. Their life was a miserable existence.
I began collecting money and sending it to the zoo to raise money for a better exhibit for them. I was even featured in the Humboldt Area Foundation's yearly booklet for my efforts. I was so excited when I heard that the exhibit was finally being built. But, my excitement didn't last long.
In 1982, the bears were murdered right after the female bear gave birth to twin baby girls. I was so angry. My little 12 year old self called the zoo and asked to speak to the zoo manager and I told them off. I was given a lame excuse on the phone and I knew I was being lied to. I told the person on the other end: "You're lying!" as I continued to sob and hung up the phone. The lie was repeated in the Times Standard newspaper: "A visiting veterinarian came on the weekend and euthanized them because they were suffering." The zoo's and the City of Eureka's lie has changed throughout the years. But, the truth is that they didn't want two neurotic bears when they had two baby ones that they could bottle feed and force to bond to their zoo keepers and not their parents.
It's inhumanity. It's shameful. This zoo has never cared about the welfare of its animals.
The spider monkeys were supposed to get a new, larger exhibit over a decade ago. Nope, they are going to let them die off in that inhumane enclosure one by one.
We can do much better than this, #humboldt #EurekaCA.
Bear River Casino Resort is this shameful prison for animals where you really want to put your money?
