PETA and Joaquin Phoenix Launch Campaign to Remove Bears From Beautiful Home and Place Them in Barren Cages

One of the deceptively named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals primary tactics is to hire celebrities that have worked with animals in the entertainment industry to do public relations campaigns against the people who own them.

It has become a clear pattern of behavior by the organization — whether the animals are being well cared for or not — because their goal is to end all animals in captivity, no matter the conditions.

To do this, the deceptively named organization destroys animal owners by launching massive smear campaigns alleging abuse and neglect, again, whether that is actually the case or not. They then sue to seize custody of the animals, play on people’s heartstrings, beg for donations using the animals as props, and set precedents that can be used to target broader groups of animal caretakers in the future.

This tactic is currently playing out with Brother Bear actor Joaquin Phoenix and a beautiful facility that happens to be the home of the bears that the star had no issue using for his own profit in the past, called Bearadise Ranch in Florida.

PETA, by their own admission, approached Phoenix to let him know that bears that were used as models for his film Brother Bear are being kept at the USDA licensed preserve. They claimed that these animals are being exploited because people are allowed to see them — and used the celebrity to bring headlines and public shame against the owners.

The bears travel for fairs and are used to teach people about the importance of conservation, as people are often more open to caring about such efforts when they are seeing a real animal right in front of them.

In fact, six out of eight species of bears native to the United States are threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, something the people at Bearadise Ranch hope to educate people about when they meet their bears at state fairs and other events.

 

The “animal rights” organization has presented no evidence of abuse or mistreatment, but claimed that it is an outrage that sometimes the bears travel… and that one of them was used as a ring bearer in a wedding. Since they cannot accuse Bearadise Ranch of actual abuse, they allude to it in their carefully crafted press releases by suggesting that the bears do tricks “likely because they fear what will be done to them if they don’t.” Apparently, positive reinforcement is not a concept that the bullies at PETA are familiar with.

The group exploits loopholes in well intentioned, but misleading, laws that have provisions which provide massive amounts of funding and grants for animals that have been “rescued” by the organization, despite their alarming track record of killing animals placed in their care.

In many cases reviewed by The Gateway Pundit, animals are pulled from beautiful lush homes where they can run and play and are placed in cold sterile “sanctuaries” to be used as fundraising props by the so-called “animal rights” organizations. 

As usual, what PETA does not show people in their fundraising efforts is the beautiful preserve where they currently live, cared for by a family that has raised bears going back generations — and the grim isolation awaiting at the sanctuary where they are trying to move them. 

At Bearadise Ranch, the animals have a large pond to swim, plenty of trees to climb, fresh vegetation, and a beautiful natural outdoor habitat. Their caretakers have dedicated their lives specifically to understanding bears and being able to provide enrichment and proper care to make sure they have happy and healthy lives.

In the countless videos from the preserve, the animals seem happy, healthy and bonded with the Weldes.

Here are photos of the sanctuary where PETA and Phoenix are trying to send them:

“Bears have been in my late husband’s family for 92 years. After my husband passed away 4 years ago PeTA had been harassing me on a daily basis. It’s hell with them. They want to take my bears away and put them in an animal rights sanctuary and tell the public they were abused and ask for tax free donations to care for them. It’s a scam. All about the money,” Bearadise Ranch owner Monica Welde told the Gateway Pundit.

Welde added that, “we go above and beyond what is required by federal and state agencies to give our bears a good life.”

Monica’s son and her late husband Johnny

In fact, Bearadise has 15 acres of land with five separate habitats within it.

“My bears have a huge pond with fish to swim in and every other habitat has a pool for enrichment, exercise and cooling off,” Welde explained.

Johnny Johnsen Welde originally began training bears in Norway in the 1920s, before running away with the circus and joining Ringling Brothers in the 1940s. The love for bears continued to be a big part of their family, and now his grandson, the third generation, is raising and training these bears with his mother, continuing after his father’s unfortunate passing. They have worked with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, and 20th Century Fox — just to name a few.

PETA claims that the bears are being transported for jobs in poor conditions, but the transport used by Bearadise Ranch is state of the art — and anyone can see that it is much nicer than the trucks from Project Chimp that PETA has used in previous animal grabs.

The goal of these seizures appears to be destroying anyone who dares own an animal, even if they are loved and well cared for, with no concern for the actual health and happiness of the individual creatures they are “saving.”

In 2020, PETA seized three chimps from a smaller sanctuary — and they were quickly killed by other chimps at the organization’s partner “sanctuary” Project Chimps. This “sanctuary” has been accused by 22 whistleblowers of absolutely shocking cruelty and neglect, including of some of the very animals the “animal rights” organization has “rescued” in the past. They have been cited by the USDA for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

Tigers and a lion seized from a rescue in Maryland have been missing with no proof of life since February of last year. The Gateway Pundit called the sanctuary, who claimed that they are alive — but said that they had no current photos of the animals.

Em Lambert, a researcher who has dedicated her life to stopping PETA’s bullying and abuse of the law, told the Gateway Pundit that she would “like to see the condition of missing animals that PETA has ripped from their homes previously before they are allowed to destroy the lives of another animal family.”

Those who wish to contribute to help Bearadise Ranch fight back can do so here.

You can hear more about what the Welde family have been going through here:

 

 

Thanks for sharing!