Visiting Bosco
PETA can’t bear to see him at Pymatuning Deer Park
JAMESTOWN, Pa. — Joan Jett loves rock ‘n’ roll, but she doesn’t love Pymatuning Deer Park.
Ms. Jett partnered with PETA last month to send a letter to Rachelle Sankey, owner of the Mercer County zoo, asking her to allow Bosco, a 23-year-old black bear, to be sent to a “reputable sanctuary.” The letter said Bosco experiences “physical and psychological distress” in a habitat where he is “surrounded by stone walls and gawking tourists.”
Ms. Sankey, 48, said she was puzzled by the letter. “I’d never heard of Joan Jett. I had to look her up” on the internet.
For anyone else who doesn’t know, Joan Jett &the Blackhearts were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 2015. She is known for hits like “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “I Hate Myself for Loving You.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will pay Bosco’s transportation costs, Ms. Jett said in the letter. Ms. Sankey has not accepted the offer.
Bosco was a cub when he arrived at the park in 1995, “and it’s the only home he has ever known,” Ms. Sankey told me when I visited her zoo on Aug. 31.
“Our biggest dilemma is his age. Our veterinary staff feels Bosco is too old to survive the stress of a move,” which would require tranquilizers and many hours riding in a truck, she said.
“That’s ludicrous,” said Brittany Peet, an attorney who is director of captive animal law enforcement with the PETA Foundation. “PETA has overseen the transport [to sanctuaries] of 72 bears in the last five years. One hundred percent survived.”
Enlisting the celebrity rocker has “been a successful way to shine some light on this,” Ms. Peet said, noting that Ms. Jett is from Wynnewood, Pa., near Philadelphia. Born Joan Marie Larkin, she will turn 60 on Sept. 22. Alas, she could not be reached for comment.
Neither Ms. Jett nor Ms. Peet have visited Pymatuning Deer Park, although PETA sent a veterinarian to observe in 2015. I wanted to see the conditions for myself.
Pymatuning Deer Park is 90 miles north of
Pittsburgh, in rural Jamestown. The 32-acre zoo has paved pathways meandering beneath huge old-growth trees that provide virtually full-time shade for visitors and 250 animals. They and their enclosures appeared very clean, and there was virtually no odor although temperatures were in the 90s.
Bosco was sleeping on a raised wooden platform in the middle of his concrete and stone habitat. When zookeepers Dan Hoffacker and Andrew Avil called his name, Bosco slowly lifted his head and raised a paw, as if to wave at his keepers. Then he went back to sleep. While I was there, Bosco ignored his swimming pool and did not go outside to a small fenced area with a dirt floor and toys. That was added because of complaints from PETA, Ms. Sankey said.
“At this roadside zoo, Bosco is denied everything that’s natural and important,” Ms. Jett’s letter said. “After the death of the facility’s only other bear last year, he doesn’t even have the comfort of a companion.”
Ms. Sankey said the female, Mamma Bear, 23, went into hibernation last winter and never woke up. She died of old age, she suggested. Keepers say Bosco is eating well and and doesn’t seem to miss her.
Ms. Peet said some black bears live 30 years at sanctuaries. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission website, they can live “upward of 30 years in the wild,” but the average life span is 10 years.
I also visited the other animals. In large, fenced areas there are many deer, including fallow deer (native to Eurasia) who spend most of their their time at the fence, begging food from visitors. There are many domestic animals including miniature horses, donkeys, baby goats, pigs and a long-haired Scottish Highlands steer. They are very friendly and seem to enjoy being petted.
One of the most popular attractions, Ms. Sankey said, is the large Budgie Barn, where dozens of parakeets fly free in a large screened building.
There are many exotics, including tigers, lions and zebras, that are not friendly to visitors. Other exotics, including monkeys, foxes, camels, kangaroos and lemurs, stopped what they were doing to visit with the zookeepers. Mr. Hoffacker and Mr. Avil seemed to genuinely care about the animals.
“I don’t doubt that they genuinely care about the animals, but wild animals should be in the wild,” Ms. Peet said, or at least in “respectable sanctuaries” that duplicate natural habitats — minus hunters and poachers.
Ms. Sankey grew up working at the zoo, which was founded by her grandparents, Richard and Irene Reigleman, in 1953. Her parents, Richard and Wanda Reigleman, ran the facility from 1979 to 2006, when they were killed in a car accident. Ms. Sankey has been in charge since then. Her three children, ages 16 to 21, work there.
Animal care “is very rewarding,” she said. “It is my family’s heritage” and it’s 247 work. She has 30 staff members in the summer and eight employees who work year-round. The park is closed to the public from October through April. Each summer, there are 60,000 to 65,000 visitors, including schoolchildren on field trips, Ms. Sankey said.
“We wouldn’t be here if we did not pass inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,” she said.
There’s probably no improvement that Ms. Sankey could make for Bosco or other animals that would satisfy PETA. Its website explains PETA’s philosophy: “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”