Former The Price is Right host Bob Barker met with the principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to talk about the town's displays of bears. Wednesday he held a news conference with PETA in Asheville, NC.
Barker's meeting with Michell Hicks in Cherokee, NC according to Amanda Schinke, Media Campaigns Coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Cherokee Bear Zoo offers visitors a first hand observation of their black bears. The zoo offers visitors the chance to feed them and watch them do tricks.
The zoo says on their website they feature native black bears and grizzlies. Hicks tells The Asheville Citizen-Times Tuesday the tribe is "complying with tribal laws and standards established by the USDA" for the care of those animals.
Barker wrote a letter to Hicks June 8 - according to PETA - expressing that "the bear pits at Cherokee Bear Zoo and Chief Saunooke's Trading Post and cramped cages at Santa's Land are among the cruelest conditions that I've heard about for captive bears. The bears have nothing to do all day long but pace the hard, barren floors of their enclosure and beg for a morsel of food from visitors."
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