smiling bears
On a cold November night in 2002, an unlikely group huddled in the FedEx hangar at Detroit Metro Airport. The animal activists, local media and zoo specialists were waiting for a plane carrying a unique passenger: an 18-year-old former circus performer—a polar bear named Bärle.
Like many circus animals, Bärle’s past was heartbreaking. She was born along the west bank of Canada’s Hudson Bay in 1984. Her mother was poached, and Bärle, just a cub, was shipped to Germany. She wound up with an animal trainer who took his bear show to the Suarez Brothers Circus in 1990.
A circus
