Last Thursday, according to media reports, a bear owned by Sam Mazzola of Columbia Station, Ohio, killed Brent Kandra, a 24-year-old man who took care of the animal. Authorities say the bear apparently attacked Kandra when he released it from its cage for its regular feeding.

The bear was one of a number of large wild animals Mazzola kept at a compound in Lorain County, including other bears, wolves, and according to some reports, lions and tigers.

Kandra died Friday morning at a Cleveland hospital from wounds consistent with a bear attack. The bear that killed him has been euthanized at the request of his family.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had earlier revoked Mazzola's license to exhibit animals, after animal-rights groups protested against his gimmick of offering people the chance to wrestle a black bear. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals began a national campaign four years ago to ban bear wrestling, and demanded that the USDA pull Mazzola's exhibition license.

When The Athens NEWS reported on Mazzola in November 1990, he was touring with an 8-foot, 1,000-pound animal named "Caesar, the Wrestling Bear" (a name to which Mazzola reportedly holds a trademark). He was coming to Athens to give patrons of the Dugout bar on North Court Street (in the building that's now home to Ski's Tees) a chance to get in the ring with Caesar.

The bear that came to Athens is almost certainly not the one that killed Kandra; that visit was 20 years ago, and according to news reports, the bear involved in the recent tragedy was not used by Mazzola for wrestling.

Local health officials tried unsuccessfully to block the Dugout show; when it did take place, demonstrators staged a protest outside, expressing concerns for the welfare of both Caesar and those brave or stupid enough to wrestle him.

According to a story The NEWS ran at the time, spectators paid a fee to wrestle the bear, with the chance of winning a $1,000 purse if they pinned Caesar to the mat.

Alerted by the Athens City/County Health Department, Athens city officials tried to shut down the planned performance, citing state administrative code that forbade the presence of animals except fish, shellfish and seeing-eye dogs in any food-licensed establishment.

The city persuaded the Dugout's management to cancel the show, by suggesting that the bar could lose its food license which would also put its liquor license at hazard if it didn't comply.

Caesar did end up wrestling at the Dugout, however. A stubborn Mazzola told The NEWS that he had a letter of permission from the Ohio Department of Health, clearing Caesar to perform in food establishments, but "your little hick-town health department didn't receive a copy of it." He also predicted that for attempting to stop his show, local health department officials would have their "aholes reamed" by higher-ups in state government.

Animal-rights activists were already voicing their opposition to bear wrestling two decades ago. A spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, in an interview with The Athens NEWS, noted that Caesar still had his teeth and claws, and could potentially hurt a human wrestling opponent very badly.

Robin Weirauch of the Humane Society cited a case in which a Maple Heights man sued Mazzola after Caeser bit him on the arm during a wrestling match, and another incident in which the bear had escaped from a cage at Mazzola's home and knocked over a 60-year-old man, keeping him pinned down for about 15 minutes.

"That bear could flip out at any minute," Weirauch warned. "He'll always be wild; he'll never be domesticated."

Mazzola, however, stuck up for his bear in the cases cited by Weirauch, noting that the "ahole" who had sued him only had to get seven stitches in his arm, and arguing that the man "truly didn't get hurt by my bear."

As for the 60-year-old, he said the man had climbed over Mazzola's fence and was feeding Caesar apples when the bear knocked him down behavior that Mazzola said should have been fully expected from a wrestling bear.

As for claims by animal-rights activists that Caesar himself might not fully enjoy his profession which in addition to grappling had included roles as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and a part in a Cleveland Browns video Mazzola insisted that the bear was living large compared to his ursine brothers in the wild.

"This bear lives the life of a movie star," he insisted. "He's even gotten to meet John Candy."