By David DeKok

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A national animal rights group is suing the owner of a Pennsylvania ice cream shop to force him to release a female bear kept caged behind his store as a public attraction for 18 years, the group said on Wednesday.

The lawsuit against James McDaniel, owner of Jim Mack’s Ice Cream Shop in Wrightsville, a town about 90 miles west of Philadelphia, alleged the black bear, named Ricky, was treated inhumanely.

“Ricky can take only a few steps in any direction before she must turn around,” the lawsuit by the Animal Legal Defense Fund said. “She spends most of her waking hours constantly pacing back and forth on the concrete floor of her cage.”

McDaniel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the York County Court of Common Pleas, seeks to have Ricky, who has been kept in the enclosure since she was a cub, transferred to a certified private animal refuge.

The Humane Society of the United States has received multiple complaints over the years about Ricky’s treatment, but it was unable to persuade McDaniel to improve her care, spokeswoman Sarah Speed said.

McDaniel has a “menagerie” permit for Ricky and other wild animals from the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

A spokesman for the commission said he was unable to release inspection reports on the bear and its enclosure and declined to comment further.

Black bears in the wild can live into their 30s and typically range over 16 square miles, and regularly climb and swim, according to a veterinarian quoted in the lawsuit. They are hunted annually in Pennsylvania from mid-to-late November.

(Editing by Laila Kearney and Peter Cooney)