“Bears are NOT Billboards,” reads a social media post from a group that supports black bears in North Carolina.
They are referring to images of a black bear with a “Trump 2020” sticker on a tracking collar. The group, Help Asheville Bears-HAB, says this is the second time a collar has been defaced with “similar stickers.”
"Whoever put these political stickers on these bears is cruel and heartless," HAB wrote in a Facebook post.
According to the social media post, the person who took the images, Sheila Chapman, wrote, “These bears are already suffering enough with the heavy collars and metal ear mutilations. But to put a political sticker on the collar? No words can describe my anger and sadness.”
Chapman said she was on her front porch when she saw the bear.
Dr. Chris DePerno, who is part of the bear study program, told CNNthat the researchers do not condone "anyone approaching a bear for any purpose" and called it "highly unethical to place any sticker on an animal."
HAB is offering $5,000 for information about the person responsible for the sticker.