This is a new beginning--a second chance for Dolly, Wendell, and our community

I have been sitting with this news for two days, and I still don’t quite have the words.

In a conversation today with Brad Howard, Chief of the Wildlife Management Division at the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, I asked him directly: “So, yesterday if you’d caught her, she would have been euthanized — but today, if you caught her, what would happen?”

If she was caught today, she’d be given a second chance.

He told me I could share that we’ve spoken, and that if Dolly is caught, the North Carolina Zoo has agreed to take her. She would be given an adjustment period of a year, after which they’d determine whether that’s the best long-term place for her. The hope is that she’d integrate into their bear habitat. If not, they will look for other suitable options.

He was also honest with me, and I want to be honest with you: there is always the unpredictable. She is still a bear, living in the “wild” of Asheville. Public safety is a factor, and there are no guarantees. But relocating her to the zoo is the goal — and that goal did not exist a few days ago.

I want to be clear about something: “Pardon” is my word. It isn’t part of the NCWRC’s vocabulary, and I don’t want anyone to think they’ve used it. When I say pardon, I mean that Dolly has been given the opportunity for a second chance. My hope and prayer is that she can be safely captured and relocated to the zoo.

The North Carolina Zoo has an incredible reputation for its conditions, its work with animals, and it is still not the perfect option, but in our imperfect system, it is an incredible opportunity for Dolly to have her second chance. Each of us do hard things every day, and should it work out, this transition will be stressful and difficult for her, but it will be hers, and I hope with every fiber of my being that it works and she adjusts. I hope her success will lead to a different opportunity in the future for habituated bears.

But here’s the thing. We can’t keep habituating bears.

This is an incredibly unique and exceptional opportunity, made possible by our collective efforts. This is not something that can be a new precedent, or a new approach to wildlife management and public safety. We must do better.

I also want to be transparent about Wendell. He will not go to the zoo. Dolly was pardoned, and Wendell will be wild. While I ache at this news, I trust the NCWRC is making the right choice for him. He’ll stay with Dolly until she’s caught, and then he too will be relocated to National Forest lands — with the hope to place him where his two previously trapped and released siblings are. As a mother, it pains me. But bears relate differently than we do, and cubs aren’t meant to stay with their mothers forever. When I asked Brad about it, he said, “The cub will get to be a wild bear” — living among wild food sources, safely away from human development.

An article ran in the Asheville Citizen Times today, and I want to acknowledge that it came out before this news had fully made its way to our boots on the ground here in Buncombe County. News travels fast, and I want to be sensitive to that. I have not shared anything I was asked not to share, and I look forward to hearing directly from the Commission and the Governor’s press office as this continues to unfold, to better understand some of the conversations that they have been having, but it is my understanding that the Governor’s office was listening, and his team has been in conversations with NCWRC. Another win, especially with an upcoming election year, that when our voices rise together, we can elevate the causes that are important to our communities.

I also want to say something about Ashley Hobbes, who was quoted in that Asheville Citizen Times article. We don’t see every part of this the same way, and I think that’s okay. I agree with much of what she said, and more importantly, I believe we share the same hope: that we can work together on real, lasting change in how Buncombe County and the city of Asheville approaches BearWise practices and bear management. That work is just beginning, and I want to do it alongside her, not across from her. Ashley’s passion and expertise has been inspirational to me.

My hope is that everyone who has collaborated, listened, engaged, and shown up for Dolly and Wendell will keep doing so — because the next big hurdle is in front of us now: making our residents, our communities, our visitors, and WNC’s bear country genuinely safer, for people and for wildlife alike.

To every single one of you — the more than 7,000 who signed, who called, who wrote, who shared, who showed up: this is yours. Thank you. Truly.

More soon.

With gratitude,
Hannah