Franklin the bear released into the wild, gets limited-edition T-shirt

WASHINGTON — Franklin, the black bear who won over the hearts of D.C. natives after making his home in a Brookland neighborhood tree, has been released back into the Maryland wilderness. The Humane Rescue Alliance, a nonprofit organization that helped lead the efforts to rescue the bear, tweeted on Tuesday that Franklin was released back into the wild just six hours after he climbed down from his tree. 

The Humane Rescue Alliance is now selling Franklin the bear T-shirts as a fundraiser for the organization.

After shocking the city when the bear was seen wandering the streets in Hyattsville on Thursday, the young bear then got the attention of neighbors on 14th and Kearny Streets Northeast when he climbed a tree for a midday snooze the next day.

Neighbors in the area named the bear Franklin after the street that he chose to camp out on. Franklin was a particularly surprising sight because a black bear has not been spotted in D.C. for at least five years, according to Chris Schindler with the Humane Rescue Alliance.

After seeing multiple social media posts from viewer Tasharia Outlaw around 7 a.m., the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) came on scene to find Franklin snoozing in a tree. Soon after, MPD and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources came on scene, as well as representatives from the Smithsonian National Zoo. 

Neighbors were happy to find out that the caution tape lining their neighborhood was because of a bear. “Praise God, there’s a bear in the tree,” a neighbor told WUSA9 when she found out the reason for the police presence was a sleeping bear, and not anything crime related.

Around 10 a.m. Friday, Franklin climbed down after his three-hour nap. Animal control officers then cornered and tranquilized Franklin to safely move him out of the area. Vice President of Field Services at Humane Rescue Alliance said that the bear would be transported to Maryland Department of Natural Resources officials. The Humane Rescue Alliance recently tweeted that Franklin was released back into a proper habitat in a remote area of Maryland just six hours later.

As part of a fundraising effort for the Humane Rescue Alliance, the organization tweeted out Tuesday that limited-edition Franklin the bear T-shirts are available for purchase. 

The T-shirts display a drawing of Franklin sleeping in his tree, with the caption “Franklin, the Brookland Bear. June 2023” T-shirts are being sold for $24.99 and all profits go to the Humane Rescue Alliance. The organization has already raised just over $4,000 through the sale of the shirts.