Cinnamon started her life near Tucson, were a family thought it would be fun to feed the mother bear and year-old cub they had sighted. As always happens when wild animals are fed, the two bears soon became a nuisance. The family called Arizona Game & Fish (AzG&F) to remedy the situation they had created.

Now, these were two very lucky bears, as AzG&F chose to relocate them. All too often, the remedy to animals that have become a nuisance because people are feeding them is to "lethally take" them. Hence, the birth of the phrase "a fed bear is a dead bear."

Initially, they were relocated to Mule Shoe Ranch, in southern Arizona. Eventually, the female cub moved off the Mule Shoe Ranch and down to the San Pedro River. However, having learned to associate humans with food, she soon became a nuisance in a nearby small town. Because this was now her second offense, AzG&F was going to trap and kill her.

Once again, Cinnamon was lucky. The area in which she had chosen to live consisted largely of The Nature Conservancy's San Pedro River Preserve, so AzG&F would need to set the trap there. However, The Nature Conservancy was not happy about the bear being trapped and killed; they asked if Southwest Wildlife would take her instead. She was trapped and sent here to live the rest of her life in our wildlife sanctuary.