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For Immediate Release:
August 20, 2025
Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382
Newberry, Mich. – A bear in obvious psychological distress was denied veterinary care at Oswald’s Bear Ranch and other bears were fed animal feed that expired in 2022, unsuitable restaurant scraps, and sugary snacks, which led them to become overweight or obese, according to a just-released report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Following a PETA complaint, a federal veterinarian inspected the facility on July 15 and documented that the young female black bear was repeatedly tossing her head, suddenly pacing in different directions, and exhibiting other signs of deep distress—and a staff member admitted that they had noticed the behavior but hadn’t bothered to do anything about it.
Oswald’s has a long history of ignoring the federal Animal Welfare Act. Among other violations, in 2021, the facility was cited by the USDA for feeding bears restaurant scraps and dog food, causing them to become overweight, and was instructed to consult a veterinarian to develop a diet plan—a directive Oswald’s appears to have ignored. That year, the USDA also ordered Oswald’s to pay a $2,400 penalty to settle a USDA complaint stemming from a tip from PETA that the roadside zoo had lied about the circumstances surrounding the death of a young black bear named Sophie, who was shot dead by a local sheriff after escaping her enclosure.
“Bears trapped at Oswald’s are sick and distressed, having been torn away from their mothers as infants, treated as props for tourist photos, and spending their lives behind a chain link fence instead of being able to be bears,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Legal Advocacy Jonathan Morris. “PETA urges everyone to stay far away from roadside zoos like Oswald’s that sentence animals to lives of illness and misery.”
Bears allowed to be bears love to climb and explore, can travel more than 20 miles in a day, and have been seen maneuvering tree stumps to gather out-of-reach food and using rocks as “exfoliators” to shed excess fur. In nature, black bear cubs stay with their mothers for up to two years, but Oswald’s Bear Ranch—which falsely markets itself as a “rescue”—acquires weeks-old cubs from out-of-state breeders so it can sell cub-petting sessions. When the cubs become too large and dangerous to be handled, they’re crammed into a small, mostly dirt pen where all they can do is pace.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
Exposing the Big Game 