Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has released a video on social media where he admits to disposing of a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park back in 2014.
In the clip posted to his X account on Sunday, Kennedy is seen with controversial US comedian Roseanne Barr. He recounts the unusual circumstances that led to the incident, which puzzled New Yorkers a decade ago.
Kennedy explained that while driving outside the city, he witnessed a woman hit and kill the bear cub with her car. He decided to take the bear with the intention of skinning it and harvesting its meat. The anecdote appears to have been shared to preempt a story published by a private news outlet on Monday.
According to the report, Kennedy was “tickled” by the bear’s discovery during a falconry outing in upstate New York. After finding the bear, he loaded it onto his truck. An image from the article shows Kennedy grimacing with his hand inside the dead bear’s bloody mouth.
The magazine, citing an anonymous source, reported that Kennedy “thought it would be funny to make it look like an errant cyclist.” This account aligns broadly with the one Kennedy shared over the weekend.
In the video, Kennedy, seated with rolled-up sleeves at a table covered with food, tells Barr that he was on his way to meet a group for falconing near Goshen, New York, when the bear was killed. “I was going to skin the bear—it was in very good condition—and put the meat in my refrigerator,” he said. “And you can do that in New York state: get a bear tag for a roadkill bear.”
While New York state law allows individuals to take bears killed on roads, they must notify law enforcement or the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to obtain such a tag. Kennedy did not appear to follow this procedure.
Instead, he continued to his falconry outing, which lasted late into the evening. He then went to a dinner reservation at Peter Luger Steakhouse in New York City, about 75 miles south of Goshen. “At the end of the dinner, it was late, and I realized I couldn’t go home,” Kennedy said. “I had to go to the airport, and the bear was in my car. I didn’t want to leave the bear in my car because that would have been bad.”
Kennedy then had the idea to stage a bike accident with the bear carcass in Central Park. He explained that a series of bicycle accidents in New York had inspired him, and he had an old bicycle in his car. Several intoxicated individuals with him supported the idea, though Kennedy emphasized he had not been drinking.
“So we did that, and we thought it would be amusing for whoever found it,” Kennedy said. “The next day, it was on every television station. It was the front page of every paper. I turned on the TV and saw yellow tape, 20 cop cars, helicopters flying, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, what did I do?'”
A fact-checker from a private news outlet called Kennedy to ask if he was involved in dumping the bear’s body, prompting him to release the video.
The bear’s corpse was discovered by a woman walking her dog in Central Park, where bears are not typically found. It had been placed under some bushes alongside an abandoned bicycle, according to a 2014 story by a private news outlet. The article noted that the New York Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad was investigating the bear’s death, and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation concluded the animal had been killed in a “motor vehicle collision,” not a bike accident.
Neither the New York Police Department nor the Department of Environmental Conservation responded to requests for comment.
The 2014 incident was puzzling to many, as noted in a private news outlet story at the time: “But so many questions remain unanswered: How did the bear end up in Central Park? Was there foul play involved? Did she die in the park, or was she dumped there?”
Interestingly, the decade-old story was written by Tatiana Schlossberg, a former journalist and granddaughter of US President John F. Kennedy. Schlossberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her relative, and many members of the Kennedy family have disavowed Robert Kennedy Jr.’s actions and presidential campaign.
Kennedy’s bizarre confession comes as his 2024 presidential campaign struggles. With Vice-President Kamala Harris entering the race following President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside, polls indicate Kennedy’s support has dwindled to single digits. Despite being a member of one of America’s most famous political families, Kennedy has faced difficulties raising funds and has slowed his campaigning in recent weeks.
These issues have led to speculation that Kennedy might drop out of the race, although he insists he will not.
