Bearadise Ranch Owner Cited For Allowing TV Crew To Feed Bear

MYAKKA CITY, FL — Monica Welde, the owner of Bearadise Ranch in Myakka City, was cited by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Feb. 12 for violating state wildlife laws. Authorities said Welde let a TV news crew feed and stand by a bear with no protective barriers.

The FWC said she violated Florida administrative code 68A-6.016(1)(b)2.e, which pertains to keeping wildlife as personal pets and addresses public contact with captive wildlife. That code says “incidental contact with other class I wildlife must be approved in writing by the commission prior to the use of the wildlife for incidental contact with the public,” according to the citation.

Welde must appear at Manatee County Court in Bradenton Saturday.

The FWC issued the citation after investigating a complaint filed by Jonathan Morris of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

According to the complaint, Welde allowed two WZVN-TV (ABC7) employees to interact with a bear named Carol. In the video that aired, one of its reporters is seen standing in a cage next to the bear, feeding her honey and walking her on a leash. There were no barriers between the reporter and the bear.

The segment was a promotion of Bear Hugs & Kisses, a Valentine’s Day-themed fundraising event for Bearadise Ranch.

According to FWC regulations, “Unconfined captive wildlife shall be maintained under rigid supervision and control, so as to prevent injuries to members of the public. No captive wildlife shall be tethered outdoors unsupervised. To provide for public safety, all wildlife shall be tethered or controlled in such a manner as to prevent physical contact with the public and a structural safety barrier.”

Any incidental public contact with Class I wildlife must be approved in writing, the FWC rules said.

When contacted about the incident, Welde asked Patch, “Did PETA contact you?” and said she had “no comment.”

Welde was also issued a warning from the FWC in May for allowing violating Florida’s wildlife laws regulating public contact with captive wildlife.

A St. Petersburg couple was married at Bearadise Ranch March 21 and Carol the bear served as the ring bearer, Sarasota Magazine reported.

“Bearadise Ranch continues to exploit wild bears who belong in nature — and it continues to run afoul of the law as a result of recklessness and greed,” Debbie Metzler, PETA Foundation associate director for captive law enforcement, said in a statement. “PETA urges the public to use its better judgment and avoid all roadside zoos and traveling animal shows, whether these sleazy operations are featured on ‘Tiger King’ or the local news.”

Bearadise Ranch is home to the Welde Family Bears, which launched in 1926, according to the ranch's Facebook page. The page describes the ranch, which is open seasonally for tours by reservation only, as “a learning facility to generation awareness for habitat preservation and conservation for all bear species.”

The site is licensed and regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture and the FWC, the Facebook page said.

"FWC investigators routinely conduct inspections of captive wildlife facilities to ensure humane treatment and sanitary conditions are in place for the animals. Investigators also inspect to ensure that cage and security requirements are followed to ensure public safety. We continually monitor all licensed facilities, including any citations and warnings they may have received, for relicensing purposes," Shannon Knowles, FWC public information coordinator, said in an emailed statement to Patch.

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Several years ago, a PETA campaign starring Academy Award-winning actor Sir David Mark Rylance advocated for bears forced to perform. The video included footage from Bearadise Ranch.

PETA also launched a petition “urging the Weldes to allow these bears to live the way they're meant to — removed from tractor trailers and free from the stress and health risks associated with being exhibited in shows, both on the road and at Bearadise Ranch.”

In response to what it called “false allegations” by PETA, Bearadise Ranch shared a video from Protect the Harvest, an organization that supports farmers, ranchers and animal owners, about how the ranch treats and cares for their bears to its Facebook page in 2018.

Among several written statements that appear on screen during the ranch’s video are “PETA thinks they know better than a family that has been working with bears for over 90 years” and “PETA knows nothing about caring for bears.”

In 2018, Bearadise Ranch also crowdfunded about $3,200 for a legal defense fund to “stop cyber-bullying, threats and harassment” of the ranch, according to its CrowdJustice.com fundraiser.

The fundraiser description doesn’t mention PETA but said Welde was “being attacked by corporate lobbyists.”

The description, written by Welde, also says an unnamed animal rights organization “politically targeted my family bears and have engaged in a war-like campaign to seize them by force using their teams of lawyers through a tactic called lawfare which attempts to financially drain ordinary Americans through frivolous lawsuits … to harm us financially with our business colleagues and associates, and to unfairly attack our family business, our good name and our public reputation with the ultimate goal of taking our bears by force and intimidation and separating the family from our beloved bears so that they can sell merchandise, make money off of them at a facility of the animal rights organization's choosing and dispose of them when they are no longer commercially viable for their company.”

Welde, with help from her son, Johnny Welde Jr., has run Bearadise Ranch since January 2017, when her husband, Johnny D. Welde, died.

The Welde Family Bears got its start in Norway in 1926, the Observer reported. That’s when Johnny Sr.’s grandfather joined the circus with an animal act, eventually immigrating to the United States in the 1940s to work with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus. Many of his bears appeared in films and on television programs.

When Johnny Sr. took over the family business 22 years ago, he and Monica built Bearadise Ranch, a 32,000-square-foot habitat, in Myakka City. They take their bears on the road to perform at events like state fairs and also allow tours of the facility, reports said.