Meatball the Bear Will Not Become a Colorado Resident

I thought I was a pretty popular guy, I have 900 and some friends on Facebook... Well Meatball, who is a bear by the way, has more than 27,000 followers on Twitter! Talk about a popular guy! Unfortunately, the nationally publicized California bear plucked from a Los Angeles-area swimming pool last week will not get a home in Colorado.

The bear, known as "Meatball," "Glen Bearian" and "210" — the latter because of the Interstate 210 freeway that parallels some of the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County where "Meatball" was twice returned by the California Department of Fish and Game, kept coming back to the Los Angeles neighborhoods where he became a familiar sight in recent months, and is renowned for having gone into a resident's garage fridge, opening up a bag of meatballs from Costco and eating them.

Last week, when Meatball was captured for a third time, he was taken to a rescue facility, Lions Tigers & Bears, in San Diego County, where he was waiting for awhile before he was eventually to be taken to a permanent home, the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado. But that news changed.

"California does not intend to let Meatball come to Colorado," Randy Hampton told the Denver Post, a spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. "It's a moot point."

Carol Singleton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said in an e-mail, "We are working with several wildlife sanctuaries and animal care facilities to find a permanent placement for the bear in California." She cited legal complications in Colorado for the decision.