Bear cub caught in Oklahoma hog trap gets new home in Texas

CORINTH, Texas (AP) — A wild black bear cub rescued from a hog trap in Oklahoma and kept in a chicken coop in Texas has a new home at a wildlife sanctuary.

Police said a Corinth man had found the 3-month-old bear in a trap in McAlester, Oklahoma, and not knowing what to do with it, took it across state lines to his home, where it was housed in a chicken coop.

The cub at some point escaped and was later captured Thursday by animal control officers at least a mile from where the Corinth man lived. Police Lt. Jimmie Gregg told the Denton Record-Chronicle that an off-duty officer had spotted the wandering 6-pound cub and called authorities.

“The officer had to do a double take,” Gregg said. “He initially thought, ‘That’s a funny looking dog.'”

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When animal control arrived, they found the cub climbing trees and “being a bear,” Gregg said. The cub was eventually cornered and captured.

Owner Scott Edwards of Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch welcomed the tree-climbing bear before an official from the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary in Boyd came to pick it up.

“He will be able to live a long and happy life with other bears at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary,” Edwards said.

Gregg said a police search of the Corinth’s man home didn’t find any other illegal animals, but there were a variety of “not your normal, run-of-the-mill type animals.”