You may have heard about the tragic story out of Cleveland, OH, where a 24-year-old man was killed by a captive black bear as he was opening its cage for regular feeding.  Well, now the bear has been put down at the request of the man's family.  You can find both stories here and here. 

That's two tragedies in a single story: the death of the young man and the death of a bear that, if left to its own in the wild might still be alive.  This is why I'm always on about the ridiculousness of people who think they can safely keep wild beasts at their personal residences like enormous fluffy pets and why I regularly get on my soap box against allowing animals to be treated like saleable commodities, whether they're bears, chimps or cougars. 

In the Cleveland case, the owner of the property where the animals were housed had a regular menagerie: four tigers, a lion, eight bears and twelve wolves, at last count.  Though some stories have called his property a "refuge," the fact is that it was in a residential area and the neighbors were constantly complaining about the racket made by the critters. Bottom line, this was a bootleg operation run by someone who may love animals but does not appreciate the kind of environment they need to thrive.

One problem is that unlike dogs or cats, domesticity is not bred into the bears, tigers, wolves, chimps and other creatures that tend to occupy these makeshift preserves.  Such animals can be docile for years and seem perfectly safe, as the unfortunate bruin in this story seemed to be, and then suddenly lash out as their predatory instincts take over.  These will never, ever be domestic animals or pets, and to treat them otherwise is not only incredibly foolhardy but ultimately destructive. 

Then there's the fact that the gent who runs the pseudo-sanctuary was letting people pay to wrestle the now-dead bear.  This is what raises my hackles.  This isn't a damned carnival act...it's a beautiful, dangerous creature that should be treated with respect, not paraded before the public like a clown!  A lack of respect for the beauty and power of nature, and a self-delusional attitude about what it takes to care for big creatures safely and with optimal results for the animals' health, leads directly to terrible outcomes like this one.  If the sanctuary owner winds up having his operation shut down, the remaining animals may well end up scattered to the four winds—some housed in the private homes of idiots who think it's neat to have a pet lion, others in preserves or zoos, and some even killed so their parts can be used to make dubious Asian aphrodesiacs.  Everybody loses. 

Plain and simple, keeping wild animals in residential areas is wrong.  Playing zookeeper without training and a background in biology, zoology or animal husbandry is wrong.  Treating animals like sideshows is wrong.  I wonder how many more animals will pay with their lives before we figure that out. 

We were saddened this week to learn of the sudden death of author Jim Cole, who passed in his sleep on July 25 at the age of 60.  Jim was a grizzly bear expert and self-taught naturalist who had become a great friend to both of us: first to Tim, who co-authored his book, Blindsided, which came out in June of 2010, and then to Annie, who had him as a guest on All Paws Pet Talk, where he shared the incredible story of surviving his second grizzly bear mauling in 2007.  

Jim was a passionate, funny baseball fanatic who gave up a thriving real estate career nearly 20 years ago to move to Montana and spend the rest of his life living near the wilderness.  He amazed everyone, including us, with his fearlessness and calm around grizzly bears, which were his greatest source of fascination and his life's work.  Hiking more than 2500 miles in a typical year within Yellowstone, Glacier National Park and Alaska, Jim would return with incredible photos and observations of the largest carnivores in North America.  Even after his near-fatal mauling, his love for these creatures did not wane a bit.  Hence the subtitle of his book: "Surviving a Grizzly Attack and Still Loving the Great Bear."

So it was shocking and painful to hear of his abrupt end.  Jim had cardiac arrhythmia that required a simple surgical procedure a few years ago, and one can only assume that for a man as fit as he was, sudden cardiac arrest my have been the cause of death.  But that doesn't matter in the end.  What does matter is that a good, kind, passionate and dedicated man walked among us and now walks no more.  But sad as we are, we don't mourn Jim Cole.  He did something few people ever do: he lived exactly the life that he dreamed about.  We should all be so lucky.

Vaya con dios, Jim.  If you'd like to find out more about Jim's book, Blindsided, go to his website. 

Jim Cole on the Today Show 6-8-10

Jim Cole on the Today Show 6-8-10

Our good friend Jim Cole, author of "Blindsided," passed away at the age of 60. Tim co-wrote his book and this was him appearing with Matt Lauer on the day the book came out. He was a wonderful man and will be missed.