For Immediate Release: Aug. 2, 2021 Contact: Moira Colley 202-483-7382 Davenport, Iowa – Joaquin Phoenix learned from PETA that two bears were used in the Beradise Ranch Show due to appear at the Mississippi Valley Fair this week , served as models for one of his films, Disney’s Brother Bear. So he sent a letter to Monica Welde, the roadside zoo owner, asking her to stop the walking shows and offering to help get the bears out of involuntary show business and relocated to a recognized sanctuary . “I spoke to the main character of the film, Kenai, who is magically transformed as an empathy lesson to see the world through bear eyes, and now I ask you to see through her eyes, too,” writes the Oscar winner. “These bears deserve better than a life on the streets, where everything that is natural and important to them is robbed of them, and if you put yourself in their shoes you will surely see that too.” The operators of the Bearadise keep the street Ranch the bears in transport cages where they can hardly turn around and cannot avoid ending up in their own rubbish. When performing, the bears climb ladders, carry a basketball while walking on their hind legs, pull hoops over their heads, and perform other tricks – probably because they remember what happens to them when they don’t. PETA – whose motto is: partly that “animals are not for us to be entertained” – opposes speciesism, a human supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Phoenix ‘letter to Welde will follow. Dear Monica, I have just learned that two of the bears used in your walking show, Bambi and Bruno, as models for Disney’s Brother Bear. I voiced the main character of the film, Kenai, who is magically transformed as a lesson in empathy to see the world through the eyes of bears, and now I ask you to see through their eyes too. These bears deserve more than a life on the streets, deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, and putting yourself in their shoes is sure to see you see it too; they know firsthand that bears are curious, complex animals that like to climb, dig, forage, and play. Their keen sense of smell and plate-sized paws have evolved to allow them to look for mate and food over long distances, but those carefully sharpened traits are wasted at the circular fair, where they have to be caged when they don’t mature over Pull your head and carry basketballs around in front of strangers. Bambi and Bruno will never experience life in the wild. They’ll never sniff out salmon runs or cross mountains – but that doesn’t mean their lives can’t get better. Please consider putting an end to the tricks and travel and giving all the bears in your facility a chance to simply live like bears? If you really want to do the best for them, let me help you make arrangements for them to be transferred to an accredited sanctuary. Sincerely, Joaquin Phoenix
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