25 animals -- alpacas, emus, more -- removed from Jim Mack's roadside attraction where Ricki the bear once lived

The outdoor menagerie at Jim Mack's ice cream parlor in Hellam Township, York County, is gone.

The Lincoln Highway attraction was previously the focus of a national campaign leading to the rescue, in February 2015, of Ricki, a black bear that spent 16 years in a cramped habitat outside the ice cream shop.

Now, the Animal Legal Defense Fund -- which cooperated with local advocates to rescue Ricki -- and the York County SPCA have removed the remaining two dozen animals from cages on the site.

Although Ricki found a new home at a sanctuary in Colorado, these animals have all been relocated to sites in Pennsylvania, according to Natalia Lima, publicist for the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

The York County SPCA "took seven rabbits, five chickens, three goats and a goose," Lima said in an email Monday.

Additionally, Chenoa Manor -- a nonprofit farm and animal sanctuary in Avondale -- took two alpacas, a llama and two emus, she said, and the Indraloka Sanctuary took four peacocks to its facility in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Lawsuit threatened

James H. McDaniel Jr., owner of Jim Mack's, released custody of Ricki to the ALDF in February 2015 after the organization agreed to drop a lawsuit against him.

According to Lima, the settlement between the ALDF and McDaniel stipulated that he would not acquire additional animals after Ricki's release. The organization accused him of breaching that contract after two area residents complained in June.

The parties reached a new settlement this month after the animal welfare group threatened to sue McDaniel for breach of settlement.

Instead, McDaniel relinquished the animals. They were removed from his Hellam Township property on Saturday.

The York Daily Record reported Monday that an ALDF lawyer said the animals were not receiving adequate care. The Daily Record also reported that McDaniel disputed that claim, and he said the animals were all there before Ricki was taken from the site.

Ricki's plight

The bear -- previously known as Little Ricki -- was the subject of a national effort in January 2015, garnering tens of thousands of signatures on at least two online petitions and gaining support from comedian Ricky Gervais.

She was taken to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado after a lawsuit -- spearheaded by Lancaster residents Amanda Welling and Kelly Bennett, among others -- made the case that Ricki was kept in cruel, unhealthy conditions, living alone in a 250-square-foot cage.

Now, she shares a sprawling 10-acre habitat with five other black bears, where she can wander, forage and swim.

The sanctuary -- 720 acres in all -- has more than 150 rescued black, brown and grizzly bears, as well as other animals, all of which came from "very severe confinement conditions," according to officials there.