Unfortunately, Welde has already answered Phoenix’s call loud and clear: “To PETA and Joaquin Phoenix, leave us alone!” She posted a statement on the bears’ behalf to Facebook on Friday, writing, “We do not want to be taken away from our loving home with the Welde family. PETA recently posted a video to its YouTube channel titled “Bears of Bearadise Ranch Deserve Better,” which showed the famous bears being “forced to perform confusing and scary tricks” along the road show circuit.
![brother bear and animals brother bear and animals](https://lindsaywildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/cc_resize/p33159_p_v8_af-300x300.jpg)
They’ll never get to sniff out salmon runs or traverse mountains - but that doesn’t mean their lives can’t improve.” Phoenix ended the letter by asking Welde to put an end to the “tricks and travel” so that Bambi and Bruno can get the chance to “live like bears.” He even offered to help make arrangements to get the bears transferred to an accredited animal sanctuary. “And now I’m asking you to see through their eyes, too.” He continued, “These bears deserve better than a life on the road, where they are robbed of everything that’s natural and important to them… Bambi and Bruno will never experience life in the wild. “I voiced the movie’s main character, Kenai, who, as a lesson in empathy, is magically transformed to be able to see the world through bears’ eyes,” Phoenix began. Upon learning that the bears Bambi and Bruno, who served as models for the film’s main characters, were being used for live entertainment, Phoenix wrote a letter to Bearadise Ranch owner Monica Welde imploring her to act in the animals’ best interest.
![brother bear and animals brother bear and animals](https://i1.wp.com/31.media.tumblr.com/cb6807fdc5cf22c8614365fd8e9f1eca/tumblr_msoutiHb2r1se8wuso1_r1_400.jpg)
The actor is calling on a Florida animal park, Bearadise Ranch, to move the two bears that inspired his 2003 Disney film “Brother Bear” out of show business and into an accredited sanctuary. Joaquin Phoenix’s acting career and animal activism are colliding.