By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-07 15:12:36 | Updated at 2024-12-23 11:17:48
2 weeks ago
Meet the new P’nut.
Honey, a 27-year-old black bear and star attraction at a state-licensed animal refuge on Long Island was euthanized last month after what animal advocates allege was years of horrific neglect and lack of medical care at the taxpayer-funded facility.
The doomed beast suffered from broken and rotted teeth, and chronic urinary tract infections and was frequently seen swaying back and forth in her enclosure in the Holtsville Ecology Center, according to Humane Long Island, which accused staff of dismissing their concerns.
Honey’s bitter end came on Nov. 22, after the animal suffered a stroke and lost the use of the rear part of her body, a center official said. Black bears can live into their 30s in captivity.
Her death comes a month after the state Department of Conservation infamously seized P’nut the Squirrel from an upstate home and executed him.
The 3.5-acre Long Island refuge, meanwhile, is licensed by DEC and, bizarrely, run by the Town of Brookhaven’s Highway Department.
It is free to the public and home to more than 100 sick or injured animals that cannot live in the wild.
But few staffers have the proper veterinary training to care for their charges, former employees Cayleigh Kunnmann and Kathleen Conelly told The Post.
Honey, along with her brother Pooh, was donated to the center as a cub in the late 1990s by wildlife exhibitor Larry Wallach, who was forced to shut down his sloth-encounter storefront.
Toward the end of her life Honey would struggle to get up the hill in her enclosure to be locked into her concrete pen at night, Kunnmann said.
Humane LI claimed the pen was barely big enough for Honey to turn around.
“They would harass her until she went up the hill,” Kunnmann contended. “They would yell, run along the outside of the enclosure. Sometimes if she really wasn’t going, they would spray her with the hose.”
Ursine expert Steve “The Bear Whisperer” Searles said Honey’s swaying is common for stressed bears in captivity.
“These are all chronic symptoms that stem from even people who are well-intended in zoos, but also people that maybe aren’t so thoughtful in these places,” he said.
The center opened in 1974 on the site of a former landfill and is beloved by families with young kids who come to see everything from goats and ducks to bison, wolves, mustangs, lynx, and other animals.
At least eight former employees allege Honey was far from the only creature to suffer at the center. Several were left without proper medical care, and died or had to be euthanized, including at least five since July, Humane LI alleged.
They include Wilbur, a large farm pig; Lilly, a lionhead rabbit; Patrick, a mallard duck with mobility issues; and Clarice, a white-tailed deer with kidney failure.
One longtime employee without veterinary training was allegedly seen cutting into sick animals, including a duck with an infected foot and a goat with an abscess, the ex-employees alleged.
Animals were frequently kept in unheated, uncleaned cages, even overnight and on winter weekends, staffers claimed.
And basic maintenance, including caring for hooves or horns, was lacking, to the point where one goat had a horn grow into the side of its head, the whistleblowers alleged to Humane Long Island.
“We’ve already secured reputable sanctuary placement for every single animal suffering at this garbage-dump-turned-zoo,” said Humane Long Island president John DiLeonardo, who led 30 protesters Friday night as hundreds of people flooded into the center for the town’s annual tree lighting. “All that is needed is for the Highway Department to admit they should stick to fixing potholes instead of confining animals.”
Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro vehemently denied the allegations and insisted the animals were under the care of a licensed vet, though he could not immediately confirm whether the medical professional was qualified to work with large mammals like Honey.
“This is not something the town is hiding from or trying to sweep under the rug,” he told The Post. “It’s just frustrating when someone is spreading clear falsehoods presented as facts.”
He called the allegations “insulting,” and said his staff “categorically deny” spraying Honey with a hose to get her to move.
“I think the track record of the facility and the work that we’ve done and the feedback I have gotten has all been very positive,” slamming DiLeonardo as “a self-appointed sole arbiter of truth.”
The DEC said it was not aware of any complaints but would investigate. The center passed a surprise inspection from the US Department of Agriculture in August.
