A 21-year-old woman who was filmed feeding a black bear in Tennessee is facing 6 months in jail

• Kristin Farris, 21, was charged with illegally feeding the black bear in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
• A since-deleted video on TikTok video had shown her feeding the bear, according to a press release from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).
• A regulation in Gatlinburg bans people from feeding bears in an attempt to keep the animals out of the city.

A 21-year-old woman from Virginia is facing up to six months in jail after she was filmed feeding a black bear in Tennessee.

Kristin Farris, of Danville, Virginia, was seen in a since-deleted TikTok video hand feeding a bear foods including what appeared to be watermelon and chocolate while on vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in September, according to a press release from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).

Farris was charged with illegally feeding the black bear, which is a Class B misdemeanor. She faces up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

It's illegal to feed bears in Gatlinburg. A regulation put in place in 2000 bans people from feeding bears or leaving food in garbage bins that could attract bears to the region.

The regulation is mean to to keep bears out of the city, TWRA said.

"The overwhelming desire to have a close encounter with a black bear is strangely more powerful than common sense," Sevier County Wildlife Sgt. David Sexton said in the press release from TWRA. "Many people intentionally feed bears with little regard for the dire consequences to the bears and humans they leave behind."

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