A daring mother and son have hand-raised 14 enormous bears in their back garden – and can’t imagine living without them.
The Welde family have looked after grizzly bears, black bears and polar bears for the last 91 years – using their license to provide for those in need of a home.
And now Monica Welde, 57, and her son Johnny IV, 27, spend their days rolling around with bears that weigh up to 1,000lbs in the heart of Bearadise Ranch, Florida.
The family tradition came under threat when Monica’s husband Johnny III died of a heart attack just after he turned 60.
Devastated by the loss of the ‘patriarch’, the family’s passion for bears could have been extinguished forever. But with the support of her son, Monica managed to battle on and continue the family tradition of caring for their beloved pets.
