Revitalized bears headed for haven

Friday, March 17, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

No more California dreamin' for Manfred and Tuffy the bears. The two bruins are going there for real.

They left Henderson's Betty Honn Animal Adoption Center today bound for a new home in a sanctuary south of Sacramento.

"Of course I'm sad to see them go. We're all sad," Jordan Desario, Honn center spokesman, said.

Manfred, a 1,300-pound, 9-year-old kodiak, and Tuffy, a 14-year-old grizzly who weighs about 950 pounds, have been living at the Henderson center since Oct. 20.

The bears' previous owner, Bill Vergis, gave the animals to the Honn center after they spent the summer sharing a divided, dirty horse trailer. The animals were underweight and had parasites when they were relinquished, Desario said.

Henderson animal control officers allowed Tuffy and Manfred to stay at the Honn center until they regained their health. But they said center officials had to find the bears permanent homes elsewhere.

The Performing Animals Welfare Society, known as PAWS, offered to adopt them in November. The nonprofit organization in Galt has arranged for the animals to live in a specially built 14,000-square-foot natural habitat complete with trees, grass and pools to play in.

"It's the ideal setup," Desario said.

Pat Derby, PAWS executive director, said this morning that the area was originally going to be about 6,000 acres, but seemed to grow larger as they added trees and a 30-foot-long swimming pool.

"It has 30 trees, and the dens they will have are bigger than the enclosures they're in now," Derby said.

In about two years, Manfred and Tuffy will be moved to a new habitat, where they will live out their lives. Derby said PAWS recently acquired the new acreage that is about a 30-minute drive from the Galt sanctuary.

Ed Stewart, a PAWS worker, traveled to Las Vegas Thursday and rented the truck and trailer needed to cart Tuffy and Manfred to their new home. The bears were loaded this morning and the entourage headed out, Derby said. PAWS never uses sedatives to calm its animals.

"We use food and wait," she said.

Vergis, the bears' former owner contracted Manfred out for films. Manfred's credits include the Brad Pitt movie, "A River Runs Through It." At the PAWS center, the animals will not perform nor be placed on display.

Desario said each of the animals eats 25 to 30 pounds of fruit, vegetables, grains, meat and pet food kibble each day and enjoy their "behavior enticements."

"Toys," Desario said. "They like their toys."

One of their favorites is a block of ice with fresh fruit frozen in its center, he said. The bears like the puzzle of breaking it open and getting the reward of a treat.

"Bears are extremely intelligent," Desario said. "You could build the strongest cage in the world. But if there's one weak spot, they'll find the weak spot. They're able to figure things out."

When the bears first arrived at the Honn center, volunteer boilermakers and ironworkers set to figuring out how to fashion cages that would hold them. The end result was a pair of 24-by-44-foot enclosures that are by far the center's largest.

Honn workers would like to have kept Tuffy and Manfred for the rest of their days -- each has about 20 years of life left. But Henderson officials decided another location would make a better permanent home.

Although the bruins will be missed, Desario said there are no hard feelings between the two sanctuary staffs.

"We just wanted what's best for the bears," he said. "Everybody says this is what's best for the bears, so we go along with it."

So California dreamin', these bears are on their way.

Susan Snyder is a staff writer for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4082 or by e-mail at snyder@lasvegassun.com.