Bear joined the Big Pack in the Sky in June of 2022.

He passed at the age of 9 years old due to a severe injury/blood loss.

Bear was born in June of 2013, and came to Wild Spirit in April 2018. Bear’s story is a very controversial one with many different versions, depending on who is telling the story. The one thing we know for certain is that Bear was bred in captivity to make money for his owner. He was born at a working animal fur farm/petting zoo, where the owner charged visitors different fees to interact with a large variety of wild animals. A DNA test revealed that her wolves were high-content wolfdogs, which means they tested mostly wolf but had a bit of dog in their history. Some of the people who visited the farm gave it good reviews citing kind staff and well-cared for animals, while others gave it completely opposite reviews, citing small cages and horrible conditions. The owner faced controversy and court battles for many years. She was shut down at one time but re-opened in 2016.

The owner made no secret about breeding and selling wolf-dogs for profit and also selling wolf pelts. Publicly, her story was that she only sold pelts that she made after a wolfdog on her farm died of natural causes. Several articles about her farm quote her saying the opposite in her deposition for her court case. In the quotes, she admitted that she waited until winter when the wolf-dog coats are at their most beautiful and slaughtered as many as the fur market dictated. Answering the question of how many wolfdogs she would slaughter, she admitted she had already slaughtered two and was going to slaughter a total twenty-seven more over three weeks.

In 2018, the farm was again facing time in court with more nuisance complaints, and rezoning issues. We received reports about the highly-contested court battle and the possibility of all her animals needing places to go. We made contact with the owner to get more information, try to clear up some of the controversies and finalize plans to rescue some of her wolf-dogs if she had to close. Ultimately, she lost her case and we were able to offer permanent homes for four of her male wolf-dogs, Walking Bear, Sioux, Crow, and Chiracowa. We also offered to rescue four Arctic foxes, but we did not have the proper license. We were grateful to offer a permanent home.

Fortunately for all involved, the four boys were extremely social and comfortable around people. Loading them into our rescue van was much easier than usual. The boys had never left their enclosures or been on a leash, so they were simply picked up and tossed over their caretaker’s shoulders! The owner was very cooperative, although seemed truly devastated by the loss of her animals.

All four rescues were taken to Canyon Crossroads Animal Hospital to be neutered and to receive health checks. Bear (5 yrs.), Crow (4 yrs.) and Chiracowa (9 yrs.) underwent the surgery to be neutered while Sioux (14 yrs.) received x-rays.

It was understandable that our new boys were overwhelmed with all the tremendous changes they were experiencing. It’s not easy for anyone to adjust to a completely new life, much less for high-content wolfdogs who are innately shy and nervous about anything new. They were well cared for at their former home, and that is all they had ever known. Our fantastic staff spent a lot of time getting to know our new boys and making them feel safe and loved. We were very excited to offer four of our single rescues the chance of making a new friend.