More than 300 mourners gathered at noon today to say their tearful goodbye to two black bears who delighted visitors to Maymont Park for a decade. The bears were euthanized this week after one of them bit a child. The child and a parent had breached a wooden fence to enter a restricted area in an apparent attempt to feed the bears an apple.

The event was organized by a local woman who loved the bears and Maymont Park, and who wanted to do something to honor the bears’ existence. A few Maymont veterinarians to whom the bears were members of their family fought back tears of their own as they addressed the crowd about the events of the past week.

The community has been expressing its outrage over the decision to put the bears down so that rabies tests could be performed. Brain tissue is required to test for rabies, which requires that the animal be killed: both bears tested negative for the virus.

Visitors this afternoon talked about watching the bears frolick in the sunshine and expressed their shock and dismay about the decision, which was made following several hours of deliberation among 14 experts including doctors, veterinarians, public health and wildlife officials from the state, the City of Richmond and Maymont itself.

Some brought stuffed animals — mostly teddy bears — and left them at a display wall outside the bear habitat. One person brought a jumbo-sized Winnie the Pooh.

Others brought flowers, even favorite photos of the two bears. Children who had visited the bears with their parents brought homemade cards and drawings.

Others, children and adults alike, signed large posters and cards with messages like, “We’ll miss you.” They talked with each other about their memories of visiting the bears with their families over the years.

Still others came to take in the scene of the empty exhibit, their sadness too deep to express with anything other than silent tears.

Mixed in with that sadness and shock is anger. Anger that’s directed at the unidentified parent that apparently put the child in harm’s way despite two signs on the very fence from which the child reached through that read, “WILD ANIMALS ARE DANGEROUS. DO NOT FEED.” Anger that’s directed towards the officials who made the decision to euthanize the bears rather than simply making the child undergo the standard rabies vaccination. And anger at this morning’s revelation that the remains of the bears were buried in an area landfill rather than on the park grounds.

(The burial was done before the test results were known, and because Maymont Park is city property, the bears could not have been buried there because of public health concerns if either animal had tested positive. Also, Maymont did not own the bears: they were merely licensed to display them by Virginia’s Game and Inland Fisheries Department.)

Richmond Mayor (and former Virginia Governor) Doug Wilder has promised a full investigation of what he has called “one of the most reprehensible as well as senseless things to have occurred.” He also said that the city would investigate whether the parent — whom officials refuse to name — might face any criminal charges, including negligence and trespassing.

“The Maymont facility is to attract kids to have an appreciation for wildlife…to show how animals are our friends,” Wilder said at a Friday afternoon press conference. “And this is how we reward our friends.”

As the investigation continues, I hope that the public won’t take their frustrations out on Maymont: it is clear from talking to the various workers at Maymont that that the entire staff is devastated by the situation, as much, if not more so than the many visitors to whom the bears brought such joy.

(All photos, except the shot of the two bears, taken by the author.)

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