COLUMBIA TWP. – Sam Mazzola, who owned the bear that fatally mauled 24-year-old Brent Kandra earlier this month, has been ordered by a federal judge to undergo mental health treatment as part of his probation.

Mazzola is currently under three years of supervision after pleading out last year to federal charges that he illegally transported exotic animals for public exhibition and illegally sold skunks in 2007.

Tim Highbaugh, deputy chief of the U.S. Pretrial Services and Probation Office in Cleveland, declined to comment on the additional probation requirement imposed last week, but Mazzola said he didn’t object to it.

“I’m very, very grateful that they took the time to see how Sam is,” Highbaugh said.

Kandra was mauled by Iroquois, one of several black bears that Mazzola owns and keeps at his North Marks Road compound, on Aug. 19. Mazzola had the bear put down several days later at the request of Kandra’s family.

Mazzola declined to comment on the mauling, but a search warrant for his property unsealed Monday said that Mazzola reported that Kandra had removed the bear from the cage and was feeding it corn and doughnuts when the attacked took place.

“The bear began to bite (Brent) and pulled him into the cage,” Lorain County sheriff’s Detective Anthony Kovacs wrote in an affidavit used to obtain the search warrant.

Deputies wanted to get surveillance footage from the compound but have since said that the tapes didn’t show the attack.

Mazzola tried to free Kandra and when that didn’t work, Mazzola told Kandra to slide underneath the cage wall – which left blood on a gap between the cage wall and the floor – to escape, Kovacs wrote.

Mazzola has told deputies that he used a fire extinguisher to drive off Iroquois. He then called 911 for help, although he initially refused to say what kind of animal had attacked Kandra. After Kandra was taken to the hospital – he died a few hours after the mauling – Mazzola also was taken to the hospital with chest pains. He said Monday that his doctor told him that he had been in shock.

After Mazzola left, a friend of his named Colin Palmer arrived at the scene and told deputies that Iroquois “had a history of biting and aggression,” Kovacs wrote.

Mazzola denied on Monday that Iroquois was dangerous.

“This was the bear that everybody wanted to play with,” he said.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Don Barker said Monday that the mauling remains under investigation.

Deputies aren’t the only ones looking into Mazzola in the wake of Kandra’s death.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched an investigation, and Maria Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, said that BWC staff plan to meet with Mazzola this week to examine his books.

The BWC is looking into whether Mazzola was operating a business, despite telling the bureau that he ceased operations of his exotic animal display company in 2005.

Mazzola hasn’t had workers’ compensation coverage since 2005, Smith has said, but there is some question about whether he continued to employ people after he said he closed the company. Anyone with one or more employees is required to have workers’ compensation coverage under state law.

Mazzola said Monday that although Kandra worked for him years ago at his now-shuttered pet store in Midway Mall, he hasn’t been an employee for years. Instead, Mazzola said, he and Kandra were friends.

He said Kandra lived with him at one point and they were cooking dinner the night of the mauling. If he gave Kandra anything, it was money for gas or food, but that was done in his capacity as a friend, not an employer, Mazzola said.

Mazzola also is presently seeking a new insurance carrier after the mortgage company that purchased his home out of foreclosure sent him an eviction notice. Mazzola has until late next month to get the increased insurance, but he said he doesn’t blame new owner William Arroyo for protecting himself from liability.

“It’s just business,” Mazzola said.

Columbia Township trustee Mike Musto said that Mazzola’s ownership of all those exotic animals has drawn complaints from neighbors over the years. The trustees intend to examine the issue during a Sept. 7 meeting, he said.

Through the years, the township questioned the presence of all of the wild or exotic animals but was told such facilities are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Musto said.

“It’s a real catch-22,” Musto said. “We live in the United States and are free to do what we want, but as a trustee I am concerned about the safety, health and welfare of our citizens.”

Over the years, a number of people have questioned the township about whether the facility is safe, but the township must leave that to the experts at the USDA, Musto said.

The township will determine if any action could be taken by the township on noise complaints about howling wolves or roaring lions, he said.

The state also is currently preparing rules that would bar private ownership of exotic animals. The proposed rules would exempt those who already own such animals. In addition to bears, Mazzola also owns lions, tigers and wolves.

Mazzola said he doesn’t agree with such reforms and doesn’t like Kandra’s death being used to support them. He said that he, Kandra and others who deal with exotic animals know what they’re getting into.

“We know there’s a risk,” he said. “We chose to do this.”

Reporter Cindy Leise contributed to this story.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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