Weird Island

42. ANIMAL ESCAPE: Frosty The Polar Bear

Episode Summary

A mini episode this week, with another animal escape. Frosty the Polar Bear escaped from the now-closed Slater Park Zoo, twice!

Episode Notes

A mini episode this week, with another animal escape. Frosty the Polar Bear escaped from the now-closed Slater Park Zoo, twice!

Episode Source Material:

• Life After Slater Park
• Fanny the elephant to be freed
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, May 25, 1979, p. 13
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, May 23, 1979, p. 13
• 'JATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM flNAME flLOCATION CLASSIFICATION OWNER OF PROPERTY LOCATION

Episode Transcription

• Hi, I’m Sara and you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny, little state of Rhode Island. And, you might have noticed that I got a little off my usual schedule during the holidays. New episodes are usually available every Tuesday, but I’ve been a little late these past couple of weeks. 
• For the most part, I haven’t shared a whole lot about how I’m making the podcast. So, maybe - hopefully? - it seems like I’ve really got it together and I have a bunch of episodes researched and written and planned out. But that’s not actually the case.  
• I’m flying by the seat of my pants every week, choosing topics that just draw me in in that moment in time, and then obsessing over them until I feel like I’m ready to share what I’ve learned with you. And while that’s probably not the best process, because it means that I sometimes get off track and miss a day or a week, I kind of wouldn’t want it any other way. Because it means that I’m choosing topics I’m excited about and I’m learning with you in real time. And it makes every week really fun for me. 
• In order to give myself a bit of a gap to get back on track, I only have a short story to share this week. Sometimes while I’m researching other episodes (and by sometimes I maybe mean “very often”) I go off on tangents exploring stories that are related but not integral to the story I’m telling. And I tend to tuck these little details away with the intention of coming back to them. So, here’s a story pulled from that stash. It’s another animal escape story I came across while researching the story of Rhoda the escaped Sea Lion. This one I heard about from my boyfriend’s grandmother - who said, Have you heard the story of the Polar Bear who escaped from Slater Park Zoo twice. So, without further ado, I bring you the two escapes of Frosty the Polar Bear. 
• If you’ve recently been to Slater Park in Pawtucket, you might be surprised to know that it was once home to a small zoo. As early as 1916, there was a collection of animals that included pigeons, rabbits, deer and monkeys. By 1936, a herd of elk had been added to the collection of animals. But there weren’t many exotic animals until the 1950s, when someone made the deal of the century, trading some of the deer for a lion, a leopard, an arctic wolf, a baboon, two audads and some monkeys. An arrangement was also made with Ringing Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus around this time which would make the Slater Park Zoo the residence of the circus’ animals while not on the road. 
• The environment these animals lived in wasn’t exactly like what I described at Roger Williams Zoo. Instead of living in cages intended to mimic the environment they would be familiar with, these animals lived in a series of concrete block shelters with fenced in runs. 
• By the 1970s, one of those concrete shelters included an impressive 800 pound, 7 year old polar bear named Frosty. As the largest living bear species, and the largest land carnivore, polar bears fascinate people with their size and power. And Slater Park zoo officials started to become worried that some people were a little too fascinated with Frosty. There seemed to be some kind of conspiracy to see Frosty set free. Now, I’m not sure why they thought that, but I found a newspaper article from the ‘70s stating that the zoo was actually trying to sell the polar bear because of this suspected conspiracy. 
• But they didn’t act quickly enough. On a Monday morning in 1978, a young man cut the chains on Frosty’s cage and let him out. Newspaper articles reported that Frosty enjoyed a morning of freedom and chased a jogger on the 10 Mile River Greenway that runs through Slater Park. Talk about a little Monday morning motivation! The jogger got a great workout, Frosty got a taste of freedom, and then he was found, tranquilized, and returned to his cage in the zoo. The young man who set him free was arrested and pled guilty.
• I wish this was the end of the story. But the reason I looked into this story is because I had been told there was a polar bear who escaped from the zoo twice. And, Frosty’s second assisted escape - didn’t end well. I need you to know this in advance. 
• In May of the following year, police got an anonymous phone call reporting that Frosty had once again been set loose in the park. More than 60 state troopers and local police, including a Pawtucket SWAT team, flooded the park shortly after midnight looking for Frosty. A group of young people told the police that Frosty had roared at them and slapped two of them to the ground near the park’s baseball field before running away. As police expanded their search just outside the park, they found Frosty on the former Narragansett Race Track property. Afraid that he posed a threat to people living in the area, they shot Frosty down “in a hail of gunfire in a floodlit parking lot.” in the callous words of the article. 
• People were furious, as is to be expected. Furious with the police for killing the beloved Frosty and furious with the people who set him free. Rewards were offered up by local radio stations, asking for information about who had done it. And people angrily said the person or people who set Frosty free should be put in the zoo themselves once convicted. 
• Frosty should never have been set free. But the thing is, having to live in Frosty’s tiny concrete cage might have been a pretty good punishment for the people who freed him. And maybe the conditions of the cages at the zoo had something to do with the conspiracy to free Frosty in the first place. 
• Sadly, Slater Park Zoo wasn’t known for having great animal enclosures. The zoo was shut down in 1993 because exhibits were inadequate and in need of repair. Animals were kept in small cages, with nowhere to escape to for a moment of peace away from the public. There was little signage educating people about the animals and people were constantly feeding them candy and popcorn and other food that wasn’t really good for them. Even the food the animals were being fed by zookeepers wasn't great. There were three Himalayan Bears living in the zoo at the time of its closure who were being fed dog food, which doesn’t sound appropriate. When they were relocated, the three bears were said to be grossly overweight, weighing in around 500lbs each, much heavier than the expected weight somewhere between 150-250 pounds. 
• The TV show 60 Minutes called Slater Park “one of the worst zoos in America.” So, it’s probably for the best that it was eventually shut down. But, I know many people have really fond memories of it, and you should, in my opinion. We should love and cherish those memories of the animals as much as we want better for them. 
• And I can’t just let this be a sad story - I have to end on a happy note. 
• Probably the most beloved resident of Slater Park Zoo was Fanny the Elephant. Fanny was an Asian Elephant, born in the wild and captured by Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. She was somewhere around 4 or 5 years old when she was sold by the circus to the city of Pawtucket for $2,500 in 1958. Fanny spent 35 years living in the zoo. She was an absolute celebrity in Pawtucket. But, like the other animals, her enclosure wasn’t adequate. She spent most of her life alone, chained inside a tiny building. 
• When the zoo closed, there was a lot of controversy over what should happen to Fanny. But the Fund for Animals, the Humane Society of the United States and the Free Fanny Coalition eventually won her freedom. On June 5, 1993, the park celebrated “Fanny Fest” - a final farewell that included a parade and tributes to Fanny. And then two days later, she was loaded up into a 45 foot truck and began her 39 hour journey to her new home at the Black Beauty Ranch in Texas, an animal sanctuary run by the Fund for Animals. At the ranch, she would have more freedom and space to explore and a better diet. She ended up losing 1,800 pounds of unhealthy weight. And, she got something everyone wants. A friend. 
• The sanctuary was home to another elephant named Conga. As soon as Fanny arrived, she and Conga were fast friends, sharing hay and intertwining their trunks. 
• So, maybe Frosty the escape artist polar bear didn’t get the life or the ending he deserved, but at least Fanny and roughly 150 other animals who were moved to other facilities did. There’s no longer a zoo in Slater Park, but there is a statue of Fanny. She lived in the Black Beauty ranch until her death in 2003 at 63 years old. The Providence Journal ran an obituary for her, and in 2007 the City of Pawtucket added a sculpture of Fanny to the park so everyone could remember her. You can go check out the statue or go for a run on the bike path - if you need a little inspiration, just pretend an 800 pound polar bear is chasing you. 
• Thanks for listening! As always, all episodes are written and researched by me, Sara Corben. If you liked this episode, I would love it if you could share it with your family or friends, or you can send me a note at Weird Rhode Island at Gmail.com. And if there’s a topic you’d really like to hear about, let me know! See you next week as we dig up more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. Until next time!