Video: Dillan the Bear Thrives in Sprawling Habitat After Rescue

For Immediate Release:
January 13, 2022

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA has released a brand-new video of Dillan, a bear who spent 10 lonely years rocking back and forth in a cage at the Union County Sportsmen’s Club in Millmont, Pennsylvania, now happily splashing, stretching, and sunbathing in his new home. Rescued two years ago following a big push from PETA, including an appeal from Alec Baldwin, and having gone through a lengthy rehabilitation, Dillan now lives in a multi-acre naturalistic habitat and has made friends with other bears also rescued after PETA stepped in to help them, including his BFF, Lily.

When he arrived at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, Dillan was morbidly obese, weighing two and a half times the average weight of an adult Asiatic black bear, and was suffering from painful dental disease that had gone untreated for years. He’s since undergone dental surgery, and he’s been placed on a healthful diet to help him lose weight. Today, Dillan no longer rocks back and forth, as he did when he was kept in a barren concrete cage next to a shooting range. And thanks to PETA’s work, the Union County Sportsmen’s Club was recently banned from possessing nearly all animal species, including bears.

“Dillan is no longer the lonesome bear who once lived with pain and loneliness,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “Following PETA’s efforts, he now has a massive naturalistic habitat to explore and friendships that he can nurture.”

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and we oppose speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.