Romanian Bear Sanctuary

Bears Jean, Grisha and Bolik have had a cruel life. Now they live in Romania's Libearty sanctuary, consisting of a natural forest area surrounded by high fences where the rescued bears can live safely. The habitat contains large freshwater pools and many trees. This allows the bears to live a peaceful life. The tranquility of the pools and large grassy enclosures could not be a greater contrast to the suffering of their previous lives. Jean, Grisha and Bolik can be real bears again.

Jean

Jean is the son of Kati and Doru – all of them have been rescued from a terrible zoo in Caracal, a town in the south of Romania. As a bear cub, Jean lived together with his mom and dad in a small cage. As the mother was super protective with her baby and the father was trying to get rid of him, Jean’s first months of live were a permanent struggle to stay alive. Later, as the conflict between the parents kept increasing and the managers of the zoo could not manage it anymore, Jean was moved together with his older brothers, adult bears. This turned Jean’s life to a permanent struggle to obtain a piece of food for himself and a little territory.  

Grisha 

The former prisoner of an illegal zoo in Armenia, reached the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in the poorest condition we got to see. The illegal zoo was actually a business for the owners and once the money didn’t come as wanted, these guys decided to pack their things and move on. The animals, all of them, were left unattended until most of them (except 2 bears – Masha and Grisha) and three lions) starved to death. An animal protection NGO discovered them and asked for our help to take over the bears, we agreed, but they were too weak to travel from Armenia to Romania so they were sent to a zoo in Yerevan for a full year. Even so, on his arrival in Libearty, Grisha was only weighting 50 kilos – less than a quarter of a 6 years old male brown bear normal weight. 

Bolik 

Bolik has never known there are other bears like him in this world during his 15 years of imprisonment in the backyard of a touristic complex in Ukraine. His only friend was a wolf – Elza. Together they had to face all the cheers, applause, food thrown over them, splashes of cold water and beer cans from whoever wanted to have fun over them. 

We are extremely happy that the three bears are receiving proper nutrition and care at the libearty bear sanctuary. The forest has completely changed its looks in the Sanctuary. All the leaves are colored in shades of yellow, red, orange and brown. The bears look at their best at this time of the year as their natural metabolism made them eat a lot more than in the rest of time. They are fat and their fur has slightly thickened as the weather is colder and colder. All of them look amazing, with thick and shiny fur!  

There are currently over a 100 bears in the Libearty bear sanctuary. Together they eat more than two tons of food a day and need veterinary care to recover from their traumatic past. That involves significant expenses. Would you help prevent malnutrition and health problems by making a donation? Thank you!