UN INT Intro Text w/ Responsive Image - *Important Note* You must UNLINK this shared library component before making page-specific customizations.
Dexter Osborn, a notorious bear exhibitor, took a several-year hiatus after a major PETA campaign helped shut down his traveling bear show called “A Grizzly Experience.” Osborn once let a bear escape and remain at large for three days, while another bear clawed a handler’s face in front of frightened spectators at a fair.
Since he went off the road, Osborn has been cited for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act for exhibiting a wolf without the required authorization, and he’s taken up the disturbing practice of spitting into bears' mouths to generate “likes” on social media. Now, Osborn is trying to bring his traveling show back to life.
Osborn is taking his cruel act back on the road and hauling bears, including cubs, across the country to fairs and festivals and forcing them to perform unnatural tricks. Bears are complex, far-ranging animals who require opportunities to roam, swim, forage, and choose their own companions—not props to use for “likes” on social media or for human entertainment at a county fair.
We’re ramping up the pressure on venues that host wild animal acts like Osborn’s, and we’re calling on him to relinquish the bears to an accredited sanctuary, where they would no longer be forced to perform. Please join us in urging these fairs and festivals to stop featuring acts like A Grizzly Experience that exploit wild animals.