WASHINGTON - The Humane Society of The United States (HSUS) commends the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) for confiscating a female polar bear from the Suarez Brothers Circus in Puerto Rico today. The polar bear was taken when it was determined that the Circus had supplied false information when applying for an import permit to enter Puerto Rico and an export permit to leave. The polar bear was transferred to The Baltimore Zoo today.

The polar bear is one of seven bears that the Suarez Brothers Circus, a traveling circus based in Mexico, has been using in their act for approximately 10 months since obtaining a permit from USFWS to import the animals into Puerto Rico. During the import permit application process and ever since, there has been a national outcry about the treatment of the bears, with evidence of the Circus committing numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Most recently, the Circus was on trial in Puerto Rico on local charges of animal cruelty involving the polar bears.

The polar bear quandary has drawn the attention of animal protection groups, citizens and legislators nationwide. In November 2001, 55 members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to federal officials pleading the case of the bears. The plight of these bears has prompted Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to announce that he will introduce legislation in the coming days to bar the use of polar bears in circuses.

"It is great news that one of the polar bears has been rescued, but there are six others that are still languishing in extreme heat and other conditions unsuitable for polar bears," said Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist for The HSUS. "There are many legal questions that still need answers, some of which involve alleged criminal activity by the Circus. We urge U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials to prosecute the circus for its criminal violation of falsifying information to obtain permits for this polar bear, and to thoroughly investigate several other citations issued to the Circus since they obtained their import permit last spring," Rose said.

The circus has maintained these Arctic animals in tropical heat at times reaching 112 degrees, often without air conditioning or access to pools of cold water, and confined to transport vehicles for extended periods of time, in one instance for 55 hours. Last August, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources filed animal cruelty charges against the circus for keeping the bears in filthy cages without relief from extreme heat. The Circus has recently applied to the USFWS for an export permit to take the polar bears to perform on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, part of the Netherlands Antilles.

"The U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials should deny the Suarez Brothers' export application in light of this confiscation," Rose said. "This controversy will not go away until all legal questions are answered and the polar bears are rescued and placed in suitable environments - which is a world away from any tropical island."