A small child runs down the metal floor of the dimly lit trailer and presses his hands and nose against the glass window staring in awe at the animals in front of him. His father is close behind; he places his hand gently on the boy’s back.

Jeff Kowalczik leans against the glass on the other side of the trailer, pointing and talking about his “children.”

“Amy, the one with the lighter fur – she’s a Syrian brown bear – she’s probably the smartest one, but she also misbehaves the most,” he said, pointing to the right. “Franky, right there, he is an American black bear; he gets along with everyone…”

Kowalczik and his wife Susan are the owners of Bear Country and Orphaned Wildlife Center, a wildlife sanctuary home to 11 bears in Middletown, New York, about three hours southeast of Syracuse. Every year, for a little over 20 years, the duo has set out to the New York State Fair to help raise money for the sanctuary, charging $2 to fairgoers to get an up close and personal look at the massive creatures. This year, four bears made the trip.

 

Just a short walk off the midway, where carnies yell at you to “step right up,” the massive brown trailer is tucked in between the children’s building near the outer edge of the Fair. The outside is hand painted with depictions of bears, and the words “Bear Country” scrawled in a now-faded red across the front.

“To us, the bears give so much back to you, they are family,” Jeff said. “At home they have big indoor areas, big outdoor areas. We do three fairs a year, that’s it.”

Susan’s family has worked with bears for over 60 years. Her father was an apprentice at the The Tierpark Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany, and specialized in working with the bears there. When he immigrated to the United States, he started Bear Country to care for unwanted and non-releasable bears.

Susan can’t remember a time when bears weren’t in her life. Her earliest memories are ones of following her father around as he took care of the baby bears.

The family usually starts with the bears when they are about eight weeks old and raise them like they would a child. They feed them with a bottle, wrestle with them in the yard and hang pictures of them in their living room.

“You have to develop a trust with them, I don’t think I would go in with ones that I didn’t know,” Jeff said. “But these here, they grew up with us – they are like our kids.”

Just like any parent, the couple deals with each different personality of their children, from picky eaters to attention seekers, the duo has seen it all. Jeff joked that the bears were “spoiled,” preferring glazed donuts over plain ones and sticking their noses up at salted peanuts – they prefer the unsalted kind.

Not everyone that stops in front of the couple’s trailer is happy about their presence at the Fair. Some people angrily approach the duo and demand answers to their long list of animal rights questions. Others just stand and scoff at the structure from afar.

The couple stresses that the bears aren’t trained, they aren’t circus animals that do tricks; they are wild animals that are allowed to “do their own thing.” When they back the trailer up and start to pack it with supplies for the Fair, the bears choose if they want to enter it. The Fair means extra attention and more playtime with mom and dad, and for some bears that’s too good to miss.

Said Jeff Kowalczik: “I get to see the bears every day,” Jeff said. “I get to sit there and just watch them, and every day they do something that just amazes me.”

Published on September 3, 2015 at 1:46 am

Contact Jacob: jagedets@syr.edu