Hercules the bear
 

Has anyone just watched this on Channel 5 the story of a bear in Scotland that was a pet for 25 years until he died,it was so heartwarming,had me in tears but what a great story of how we can live with animals:hugesmile:

When was that on Kaz, I'd like to watch it.

Did you watch Mugie last night on ITV, the ending was not what I expected.

it's just been on Cherie you might get it on catch up,I'm in tears here as he passed away,but the story is incredible and it just gets you straight in the heart,I was going to watch that Cherie,but as soon as they said there would be scenes of animals suffereing I had to turn it over,was it good?I really wanted to see how he got on.

Yes pretty amazing really if you followed Christian the Lion/Elsa (George Anderson, Born Free story), as they have recreated Kora and are trying to repopulate the area with Lions, it was good but an unexpected ending so I won't spoil it for you if you want to watch, George Anderson mentored the guy who is now trying to recreate it all.

I watched it the other night when it was on. It was really interesting and nice to see how big a softie the bear was with his owners :love:

He was amazing wasn't he Jordan?he seems to be the only bear that has been so soft with humans and lived with them,I guess anything is possible with kindness:hugesmile:

...he was gorgeous..:love:..I'm not sure about the alcohol bit though, but he was lovely....

He really was,still thinking about him now,I want one:hugesmile:

Poor thing being exploited like that..****ing shame.

If I remember they rescued him from a life of exploitation and would never have survived in the wild, so what was the other option?

Nah he was a cub and would more than likely been sold to a zoo. The guy that owned him ran some sort of zoo/reserve himself...no exploitation involved/probably ended up being exploited with the guy that bought him.

The grand national is supposedly cruel to horses, when horses get treated impeccably in the stables/on race days and are pulled up during the race if they're in any potential danger, not to mention no jump related deaths in the past 2 nationals, yet raising a bear isn't cruel huh lol

I used to go and see the bear from time to time when they resided at the Sherrifmuir Inn high above Dunblane

So it's cruel to keep bears captive and rear them but not horses?...ok nath.

Erm...horses have been bred and reared by humans for hundreds if not thousands of years and have had important roles to play in our history....bears have not

Don't 'erm' me lil miss thang...
So what, who decided bears deserved exclusive freedom and horses not?
That bear had a long happy life, how happy a life has a racehorse,
When it has been exploited for monetary gain what then,
Do they go to the fluffy cloud home for retired racehorses?... no, they go in a tin of pedigree chum.

why did the bear run away if it was so happy?

it was looking to bang a lady bear