Yahoo – AFP,
Mihaela Rodina
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All of the
bears in the "Libearty" brown bear sanctuary have a "sad but
educational" story (AFP Photo/Daniel Mihailescu)
|
Zarnesti
(Romania) (AFP) - Circus bear Mura wound up in the world's biggest brown bear
sanctuary in the heart of Romania's Carpathian mountains after refusing to
perform any longer, following five years of unbearable abuse.
Caged,
beaten and starved by their owners, 80 bears rescued from captivity have been
taken in to be healed of trauma at the "Libearty" sanctuary, but the
process can be slow.
Mura for
instance instinctively begins to dance at mealtimes. "She's still afraid
she won't be fed if she doesn't dance," Libearty guide Paula Ciotlos told
AFP.
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So far, two
million euros have been
invested in the "Libearty" bear sanctuary,
which welcomed more than 20,000 tourists
in 2014 -- about 60% of them
foreigners
(AFP Photo/Daniel Mihailescu)
|
Set up in
2005, the 69-hectare (170 acre) complex was itself the result of a storm of
outrage caused by the plight of a self-mutilating bear named Maia, who hurt
herself in protest against the cruel conditions she was kept in, and who
eventually died of her wounds.
"The
establishment of this sanctuary was inspired by Maia," said Cristina
Lapis, president of the "Millions of Friends" animal rights support
group.
Their paws
still bear traces of cuts from the glass bottles.
All of the
bears in the sanctuary have a "sad but educational" story, said
Ciotlos.
By opening
its doors to tourists, though for no more than three hours every day, the
sanctuary hopes people will gain a new perspective on animals in captivity.
British
tourist John Hancock is one of the converted. He said he "no longer
wants" to see animals at the zoo after seeing some of the effects of
captivity first hand.
'Ideal
environment for bears'
"This
is the ideal environment for the bears," said Hancock. "They enjoy
everything they need here."
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Caged,
beaten and starved by their owners, 80 bears rescued from captivity
have been
taken in to be healed of trauma at the "Libearty" sanctuary (AFP
Photo/Daniel Mihailescu)
|
The land
was donated by the city of Zarnesti, and has ample forest and ponds for the
bears, who are fed once a day by staff.
They can
never re-enter the wild because they've lost many of their instincts and
"would never be able to survive alone in the forest, fight for a female,
or for food," Ciotlos said.
So far, two
million euros ($2.2 million) have been invested in the sanctuary, which
welcomed more than 20,000 tourists in 2014 -- about 60 percent of them
foreigners.
Brown bears
are common in Romania, which has a population of around 6,000. In mountainous
areas, female bears and their cubs often wander into villages to scavenge for
food in trash bins.
A
'nursery' for orphan cubs
In another
pathbreaking project, cubs separated from their mothers due to accident or
human action are being lodged in a "nursery" in the Hasmas mountains,
about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Zarnesti.
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Brown bears
are common in Romania,
which has a population of around 6,000
(AFP Photo/Daniel
Mihailescu)
|
He said
they were protected but also encouraged to fend for themselves, especially to
forage for food.
"It is
very important that the cubs grow up far from human beings" before
resuming a life in the wild, he said, adding that so far about 100 cubs had
been successfully released.
Bereczky
said the main threats for the bears was the growing infiltration of man into
their habitat, and deforestation.
Ciotlos
said some people also wanted to turn them into pets.
She said
that between 1990 and 2000 a lot of restaurants in the Carpathian region
displayed caged bears to attract tourists, but those establishments are
becoming more rare because Romania has passed more restrictive laws in hopes of
curbing abuse.
"Now
there are no more than a dozen bears waiting to be rescued in Romania,"
Ciotlos said.
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