Evidently In Canada It's Against The Law To Take Your Bear To Dairy Queen

Down here we take live Tigers to football games. According to The UK Guardian, who watches intently over the Canadian subjects of The Crown, as well as 'Those People' to the south, report a Canadian zoo faces charges after taking a bear out for ice cream at a local Dairy Queen. Yes, a private zoo in Alberta is facing charges after a bear from the facility was taken through a drive-thru DQ in a pickup truck and hand-fed ice cream.

News of the adventure to DQ came to light earlier this year after Discovery Wildlife Park, located north of Calgary posted a video on social media showing a one-year-old Kodiak bear, known as Berkley, sitting in the driver's seat leaning out of the truck’s window, enthusiastically licking an ice cream cone held by the owner of the Dairy Queen.

The zoo’s owner Doug Bos, said that wildlife officials had not necessarily taken issue with the bear’s outing to Dairy Queen, but rather the zoo’s failure to request permission beforehand. Bos said the drive-thru run had posed no danger to the public, as it had taken place before the Dairy Queen had opened for the day and that the bear had been secured throughout the entire outing. Wildlife officials in Alberta said that the zoo and its owners are now facing two charges.

“Under the terms and conditions of the zoo’s permit, the charges are directly related to the alleged failure of the park to notify the provincial government prior to the bear leaving the zoo." 

The Zoo owner emphasised the difference between bears in the wild and the zoo’s bears, describing those in the facility as hand-raised and well-trained, and had even learned to pee in a cup in order to participate in a Scottish veterinarian’s study aimed at measuring baseline norms for bears. “These bears aren’t just your average bear that we go snag out of the wild and do this.” The zoo’s owner said he planned to plead guilty to the charges.

I guess these things can happen when you let the bear drive....

Thank You MJA for the Linkage!