Animal Sanctuary Cofounder Collects Bear Fur to Make Teddy Bears

The cofounder of an animal sanctuary based in Otisville, New York, posted a video on Tuesday, July 9, showing her brushing a bear to gather fur to make “teddy bears.”

Susan Kowalczik, who founded the Orphaned Wildlife Center in 2015 along with her husband Jim and her friend Kerry, can be seen in the footage brushing the fur of Jenny, who she said is her “most reliable bear.”

“It’s the shedding season for the bears, which is the birthplace of the little teddy bears that we auction off at Christmas-time,” Kowalczik said.

“It is my job to gather up the fur, clean it, and send it to the spinners. They turn it into yarn, and from there it goes to the knitters and they create the teddy bears.”

Later in the footage, Kowalczik shows the amount of fur she collected from brushing Jenny for “about two weeks,” which she said amounted to a pile of fur that was “about four feet long.”

The center often shares videos and updates about the animals in its care to its YouTube channel and Facebook page. Credit: Orphaned Wildlife Center via Storyful

Video transcript

It's the shedding season for the bears, which is the birthplace of the little teddy bears that we auction off at Christmas time.

It is my job to gather up the fur, clean it and send it to the spinners.

They turn it into yarn and then from there it goes to the knitters and they create the bears.

The fur is everywhere in the shedding season.

But the most effective way to get it is through brushing.

It goes from the semi clean bear to the brush and then into the bank.

Yeah, that's you.

This is your heart.

Johnny is my most reliable bear for her.

Unlike the other bears, she realizes that her fur is worth something and she should get something in return for it.

Luckily, she's a simple girl and the only thing that she really wants is to suck on my fingers.

So we make an even trait.

She sucks on my fingers.

Correct.

All baby bears love suckling with their mother.

It, it's the most important thing to them.

It means everything to them.

She is 18 years old, still love suffer and I, I am honored that she still feels this way.

About for all these years.

I have a lot of brushes but this little cheap brush is the only one that I use because it's the gentlest one I take just little soft strokes.

They don't like to have their hair pulled, don't pull their hair.

They get very offended over having their hair pulled and they'll just walk away.

Yeah, just like that.

I've been brushing Jenny for about two weeks now.

This pile is about 4 ft long.

That's how much I've gotten off of her so far and she probably has that much on her still.

It's hard to believe they have that much fur.

How about a little brush in the, uh, brushing?

Amy doesn't love brushing but she never likes to be left out of anything.

So, if she sees Jenny getting brushed, she usually comes over for a few minutes.

And anyway, all, all three of the girls are very light and the sun, one, Sonya enjoys a little hair brushing too when she's in the mood for it.

But she's one that don't pull her hair either.

Yeah, her hair is very blonde this time of the year, but when you look underneath the underneath hairs are very much, uh, are much darker.

The problem with brushing Sonia is she loves swimming so much and her hair is always wet.

Ok. Yeah, Leo thinks brushing is for girls.

He doesn't really like to hold still for it after he goes for a swim.

In the evening.

He always likes to go for a long walk.

Sometimes I tag along and just try to brush him as he's walking by and just get as much fur as I can.

Well, he's doing other things.

Maddie and Judy were always my favorite bears to brush.

They truly loved it.

They would roll onto their backs and hold their arms up so that I could reach every part of them.

You better get her.

There was nothing they enjoyed more than being brushed.

I hope we were able to shed a little light on where the Christmas teddy bears come from.

We're working hard to have them ready on at, on time.