September 2010 Bear pits: They’re the pits! It’s back to school time, but that doesn’t stop some families from planning their next road trip! If you’ve ever been on a road trip, you know that signs for attractions like “Feed Live Bears Here” are more than tempting. Unfortunately, bears in these roadside exhibits are forced to live in small, barren pits with little to no shade. They cannot escape the tourists flashing their camera bulbs and paying money to throw apples at them. Day after day, they pace back and forth and adopt repetitive abnormal movements called sterotypies, which are brought on by lack of mental and physical stimulation. These bear pit exhibits frequently fail to meet the ...

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