Suit targets bear kept at ice cream shop
HALLAM, Pa. (AP) — A female bear who’s been an attraction at a central Pennsylvania ice cream shop for nearly two decades is the subject of a lawsuit that seeks to have her released into a wildlife sanctuary.
The York Dispatch reported that the lawsuit over 19-year-old Little Ricki was filed this week in York County Court by four local residents and attorneys with the national nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund.
The public-nuisance lawsuit says Little Ricki has lived at Jim Mack’s Ice Cream near Hallam for most of her life. It says she lives in a vacant and inadequate enclosure, with a fenced-in concrete pad and a large shed-type structure.
A home listing wasn’t available for the defendant, Jim Mack’s owner James McDaniel Jr.