Posted on 11/23/2010 4:23:51 AM PST by Erik Latranyi
A man in the Poconos said he is sad to lose an old friend he helped raise.
Leroy Lewis of Bushkill said he started feeding Bozo the bear 17 years ago. Through the years, Bozo grew to be a huge part of Lewis's family.
Lewis showed Newswatch 16 many pictures of his furry friend and said the friendship never scared him.
"I could lay on him, I could pet him, I could do anything, he never bothered me, that's the truth," said Lewis.
Lewis said he raised the bear since it was a cub and believes that's when Bozo's mother was killed. So Lewis took him in.
"He knows his name too, he'd look at me with his little black eyes, he'd look right at me," said Lewis.
Over the years, Bozo grew and Lewis admits it might be because his furry companion had a sweet tooth.
"All he does is eat sweet stuff, donuts and stuff. He won't eat bread. He eats sweet stuff," said Lewis, "He would come to the door, knock on the door when he was hungry, and then I would have to go feed him,"
The two were buddies, in Lewis's opinion.
The friendly visits stopped suddenly last week when Bozo was killed by a hunter, David Price, of Cresco. Price used a bow and arrow.
State Game Commission officials said Bozo was killed legally, but they said his death shows why humans should not try to adopt wild animals.
"This is what happens, these animals lose their fear of people including hunters," said Game Commission official Tim Conway.
Lewis did stop feeding Bozo a few weeks before the bear was killed because Game Commission officials told him to stop.
Now that Bozo is gone, Lewis said he misses him.
"He's my good friend, yeah, never forget it, never forget it," said Lewis.
David Price said he's hunted Bozo for the last few years after hearing about the large bear.
Price said he never knew the background of Bozo and feels bad that Lewis no longer has his friend.
It is stupid and illegal to feed bears in Pennsylvania.
No such thing as pet bear in Alaska, they are dangerous pests and dealt with accordingly.
I can’t ‘bear’ it!
(someone had to say it)
The idiot is partly responsible for the bears death.If he would not have conditioned the bear to not fear people, it would have responded in a way that would have helped it survive.
That story just bruined my whole day...(nyuk, nyuk,nyuk).
So of course, the bear was unafraid of humans because he’d been taught that Human = Goodies. This ignorant man was the cause of his “pet’s” death. He should be fined for breaking the laws about feeding bears.
This is all Michelle Obama’s fault.
Admirably punny--well done.
Feeding a bear and treating it like a pet is the STOO-PID-IST™ thing you can do. So I hope Lewis the BOZO can sleep good at night now.
Nah, can't be.
'Bigfoot Season' starts Jan 2nd.
It’s hard to leave a bear behind, alone in the woods...
Poor defenseless bear, against a hunter’s arrow. All the more reason to support your right to arm bears.
That was unbearable...(nyuk,nyuk)
But it might be better to just catch the movie instead of trying to live it.
Ironically, these hunters may have saved that buffoons live. What happens when an 875 lb bear gets angry, gets rabies, gets “senile”, etc? Bad day for the fool that wants to hand him a donut.
Father charged in baby's raccoon attack
By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The father of the baby attacked by raccoons had raised the animals as pets since June and bottle-fed them, the Newton County Sheriff's Office said Thursday afternoon.
Michael Wayne Cannon, 35, allegedly placed the two raccoons in the family's backyard a month before the Nov. 3 attack, Lt. Tyrone Oliver said.
But the raccoons would often gain access into the Brook Hollow Way home through open windows and side panels of window air conditioning units, Oliver said. That is what investigators believe happened when the 9-month-old girl was attacked as she slept in a crib in the same room as her mother.
The baby, who is no longer hospitalized and is recovering from her injuries, was seriously injured in the attack, police said. She spent 12 days in the hospital.
He said the bear would knock on the door, so obviously he taught it manners. ;-)
A huge black bear could knock a door off its hinges if it wanted. Its strength is so far beyond that of a human that this man wouldn't have had a chance to physically stop the bear from doing anything that it wanted. The problem with dangerous wild animals is that the animal will always be unpredictable. While black bear are generally totally non-aggressive, they are perfectly capable of being effective predators.
Am I the only one who is a bit skeptical of the 900-lb weight? I believe the world record weight for a black bear is 880 pounds.
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