Bosco the bear and Sissy the cougar have died at Pymatuning Deer Park, a roadside zoo in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, US. Bosco and his female companion suffered for years in a cramped concrete pit. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected and cited Pymatuning for allowing her to suffer in pain without notifying a veterinarian and for confining the bears to a concrete pit where they were deprived of the opportunity to engage in normal behaviour. Despite this, Pymatuning continued to keep both bears in the archaic concrete pit, even after Bosco started showing signs of arthritis, and now they are dead.
After the animal protection organisations PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Pymatuning Deer Park and its owner, alleging that the roadside zoo’s mistreatment of lions, tigers, lemurs, and other protected animals violates the Endangered Species Act and constitutes a public nuisance under state law, the notorious roadside zoo retired eight animals in its custody to an accredited sanctuary, but many animals remain at this zoo. The rescued animals include a tiger named Nila, two lions named Buddy and Missa, two ring-tailed lemurs, a Mikado pheasant, a military macaw, and a blue and gold macaw. The animals were placed at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado. After this rescue, Bosco was moved to one of the vacant big cat cages.
Pymatuning has a long history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA). In 2016, it was issued with a warning for more than a dozen alleged violations. The facility has been repeatedly cited for failing to provide animals with veterinary care. It has also been cited for failing to clean enclosures with a buildup of faeces and old food and failing to clean water receptacles covered with algae.
