New details emerge on US health secretary nominee dumping dead bear in Central Park

NEW YORK – Newly released documents are shedding new light on a 2014 incident involving U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In August 2024, while still a presidential candidate, Kennedy admitted in a video that he had dumped the carcass of a black bear cub in Central Park a decade earlier. Kennedy stated he attempted to stage the scene to look like a bicycle accident, a confession that resolved a long-standing New York mystery.

The new materials, obtained by WIRED magazine via a public records request from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, include previously unreleased photographs of the bear at the scene and internal emails between city officials.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) closed its investigation into the cub's death in late 2014 due to a "lack of sufficient evidence."

An NYDEC spokesperson said the statute of limitations for crimes such as illegal possession or disposal of a bear is one year. Kennedy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

While the statute of limitations has long since expired on the incident, its resurfacing serves as a potent character study regarding the judgment and temperament of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. For Kennedy, this is less a substantive policy scandal than a development that reinforces a long-standing public narrative of eccentricity and unpredictability. His admission of attempting to stage a bicycle accident scene suggests a heterodox decision-making process—one that political detractors are likely to leverage as evidence of a lack of institutional sobriety required for high-pressure governance.

The investigative efforts by WIRED to unearth these public records underscore the enduring role of the American press in maintaining a continuous vet of public officials, regardless of how much time has passed. The episode highlights a quintessential feature of the U.S. political landscape: the power of personal narrative, however bizarre, to permeate the broader political discourse.

Ultimately, while the revelation is unlikely to pivot the policy trajectory of the Department of Health and Human Services, it secures its place as a recurring biographical liability. It remains a permanent, if idiosyncratic, mark on Kennedy’s record—a testament to the unconventional persona that continues to define one of the administration's most high-profile figures.

Within the Vietnamese-American community, these eccentric stories about high-profile U.S. politicians often spark a mix of curiosity and cultural bewilderment. Whether the news is being parsed over phở in Little Saigon or discussed amidst the daily hustle of the nail salon industry, such incidents highlight the unique ways American media scrutinizes the private lives of the powerful. For a diaspora frequently focused on the practicalities of remittances or the complexities of F2B, H-1B, and EB-5 visas, the fact that bizarre past behaviors can become a national flashpoint serves as a striking example of the transparency and intensity of U.S. political culture.