Circus polar bear neglect
San Juan, PR (US)

Incident Date: Wednesday, Sep 30, 1998
County: San Juan

Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Raul Suarez

Despite a record of poor care that includes at least one polar bear death, the Suarez Bros. Circus received a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to import 7 polar bears into Puerto Rico. The bears, used to arctic conditions, will be performing in hot, humid regions of Mexico, Central America, and South America.

In October 1998, an emaciated polar bear endured a prolonged and agonizing death after a severe case of heartworm went untreated for months.

Witnesses reported that the bears clearly suffered the ill effects of unrelenting heat. Released from their cramped cages only to perform, they were forced to sit on tiny platforms, climb ladders, go down slides, and walk upright while being poked, prodded, and whacked by a trainer using sharpened sticks.

In August 2001, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources filed charges against the circus. Rangers reported that the bears were kept in filthy cages with no relief from temperatures that reportedly reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit. (Polar bears can overheat in temperatures as low as 32 degrees.)

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials and U.S. marshals seized the female bear, named Alaska, from the Hermanos Suarez Circus in the southwest Puerto Rico town of Juana Diaz on an order by U.S. Magistrate Gustavo Gelpi.

The order was based on allegations that the circus illegally imported the bear to Puerto Rico in 2001 with a permit falsely identifying it as another bear named Snowball.

Investigators conducted DNA tests on Alaska's hair and saliva, comparing them with samples from Snowball's relatives, and determined the seized bear was not Snowball. The real Snowball died in May 1994 in a German zoo, wildlife agent Jorge Picon said.

It took about two hours for the officers to sedate and remove the 800-pound (360-kg) bear in a refrigerated truck.

Alaska was to be sent to the Baltimore Zoo in Maryland, where the bear will be quarantined for 30 days and then displayed in a specially built polar bear habitat, wildlife and zoo officials said.

The Mexico-based Hermanos Suarez Circus, which has traveled throughout Puerto Rico for about 18 months, has been under fire for its treatment of its seven polar bears that perform nightly acts, prancing on their hind legs and sliding down a ramp.

But after several delays in the trial, a Ponce judge absolved the owner of the charges on Feb. 28. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, through its Miami office, filed a motion to remove Alaska. Suarez said he has papers showing the bear was bought 17 years ago from an Atlanta zoo, adding that he would appeal the seizure order.

The other six bears were still with the circus, and Suarez said the seizure of Alaska would not alter plans for the circus to open in the town of Coamo this weekend.

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