Second lease of life for abused bears

ZHYTOMYR, Ukraine - Dental treatment by the best vets, open-air accommodation and fresh fish instead of dubious leftovers and abuse - life has changed markedly for brown bears rescued from Ukrainian circuses and restaurants.

Tortured for years by humans, the animals have received a second lease of life in the city of Zhytomyr in northwestern Ukraine.

Opened in 2012 by the Vienna-based animal welfare charity Four Paws, the shelter soon became one of the region's prime attractions.

"I saw bears before in Kiev zoos, but they were much sadder than here," Myroslava, 10, says in reference to the Ukrainian capital.

"Here they are happy", says Myroslava after coming to the shelter with her school class and being particularly taken by a scarred female bear named Masha.

The whole shelter was initially built for only one bear named Nastya, who was seized from her mother when she was three months old and sold to a private zoo.

It took two months for volunteers to find her and return her to her birthplace, but Nastya's mother refused to accept her as her own.

Nastya was soon joined by another brown bear, Masha, who was rescued from a hunting dog training center, where she served as the bait.

"We received her in a terrible state: the hair on her neck had been worn away by a collar, her tail was torn off, nose scratched", said shelter manager Oleksandr Leonov.

The shelter's staff usually finds out about abused animals from ordinary people and goes straight to the location to verify the tip.

Once the bear is transported to Four Paws, a group of veterinarians from Austria and Germany come to Ukraine to make a physical examination and carry out all the necessary vaccinations.

The bear is then released into the shelter's spacious enclosure, where the creature can finally start a new life.

Four Paws park is now home to five brown bears saved from places such as roadside cafes and circuses.

The charity plans to open another large shelter for bears in the western Lviv region in September to bring them closer to their natural habitat.

But there are no plans to release the bears into the wild. Their behavior changes dramatically while in human captivity and they may be unable to cohabitate with other animals, said Maryna Shkvyrya, widely considered to be the leading scientific expert on bears in Ukraine.

"Our project gives these bears an opportunity to spend the rest of their life in normal conditions. And also to show people the consequences of animal abuse," Shkvyrya said.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 04/19/2017 page20)