Group of People Caught on Video Pulling Tiny Bear Cub From Tree

Witnesses were shocked to see several people pulling a black bear cub out of a tree and trying to grab another in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, April 16.

Video of the incident shows a person holding one cub the group pulled from the tree, before they appear to drop it and the cub runs away from the group. Another person can be seen reaching for a second cub that was in the tree.

Rachel Staudt, who recorded this video of the incident, said the group of people started taking pictures of the cubs after pulling one out of the tree. “It was a horrible thing to do to an innocent baby animal,” Staudt told Storyful.

Authorities were notified after the incident was reported to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, local outlet WLOS reported. A special projects biologist for the commission found only one cub at the scene, which she said is currently at a rehab facility and will be released back into the wild, the outlet reported.

The biologist told the outlet: “We did follow up with the people who pulled the bear out of the tree. We did confront them on site that day and let them know how irresponsible and potentially deadly it could be for that cub to be separated from its mom, especially ripped out of a tree like that.” Credit: Rachel Staudt via Storyful

Video transcript

- Should we go to the off-- I don't know what to do. Oh, my god.

[CHATTER]

- One of them--

- She's holding it.

- She's holding it.

- [INAUDIBLE] She's holding the bear.

- The other guy is grabbing the other one.

- Yup.

- You idiot. So she can say, here, take my picture and put it all over media. I'm holding a black bear.

- No.

- That's insane. That's 100% what she's doing. She's taking pictures with it.

- Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah.

- Oh.

- Did she just drop it?

- Oh, my gosh. It's running. The poor little thing.

- It want's to get back to its brother or sister. Oh, and it can't because it's too small.

- The poor thing.

- Put it back! It's scared!