ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Animal lovers are expressing outrage after people near an Asheville apartment complex were caught on video Tuesday pulling a black bear cub out of a tree before some took pictures with the frightened animal.

“It’s not often we see such blatant disrespect for wildlife,” said special projects biologist Ashley Hobbs of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, which is investigating the case.

Hobbs was called to the scene at Berrington Village Apartments late Tuesday afternoon, after an apartment resident, Rachel Staudt, saw a commotion near the trees and started taking video.

The video, later posted on social media, shows the group attempting to pull two small black bear cubs out of tree limbs near a fence.

One was pulled away and soon is seen in the arms of a woman while a companion took pictures.

“I was just walking around my apartment complex and happened to see them and told them to stop and leave the bears alone,” Staudt told 828newsNOW. “I don’t think they understood me. They kept trying to grab one of the cubs, so I called the cops and wildlife rescue.”

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office responded and then called Hobbs to the scene for NCWRC, Hobbs said.

“They claim they were tryijng to help the bear, but at no time did they provide assistance to the bear or call someone else to provide assistance to the bear,” Hobbs said. “It appears they only did so to take pictures.”

She said it was a dangerous situation for the people “that also puts the bear itself at risk. There is a risk that the humans could injure the bear cub while theyre handling it inappropriately… The chances that it could become orphaned or separated from its mother are high in that instance.”

One portion of the video shows the black bear cub falling out of the woman’s arms as she was posing for pictures. The cub is seen running away, chased by a woman along a fence line.

Hobbs said that when she got to the scene, the cub was in poor condition, lethargic and favoring one of its paws. It was taken to a rehabilitation facility at the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge in Candler.

The other cub went back to the woods, and local expert Jody Williams, founder of the now-dormant group Help Asheville Bears, said he hopes it can reunite with its mother.

“If it doesn’t get reunited with its mother, it will die,” Williams told 828newsNOW. Williams said it was a case of “pure ignorance.”

“Maybe they did actually think they were helping. (But) it’s common sense you don’t interfere” with wildlife, he said.

“Having a cub in a tree and crying, that’s normal,” he said.

While gathering food, “Mom sticks them in trees for a safety precaution,” Williams said. “They’re called ‘babysitting trees.'”

He said it reminded him of cases of people getting in trouble trying to pet the bison at Yellowstone National Park.

“You don’t do that. You don’t interfere with nature,” Williams said. “I don’t know one person who isn’t just super-mad about this. This was just all for a selfie.”

Staudt’s neighbor Pamela Philyaw said she posted the video on social media to urge people to leave wildlife alone.

“Those poor babies were scared to death. It was awful,” she said.