Video: Four-month old bear cub brutally snatched from mother in Lutsk zoo and sold to animal trader: YouTube

Lutsk / Ukraine, 29 June 2012 The animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS has
shocking video footage showing a four-month old female bear cub, called Nastia,
being snatched from her mother and brutally pushed into a transport box that is much
too small.

An animal trader had bought Nastia to sell her as a photo model for tourists. During
the kidnap, the bear cub screams continuously and tries to resist her tormentors, as
her mother runs panic stricken, to and fro in her cage. FOUR PAWS have been working
tirelessly to locate the bear. Other footage shows the traumatised bear cub
desperately hurling her tin cup against the cage wall.

“These are the most shocking pictures I have seen in my long career in animal
welfare”, says Amir Khalil, head of the FOUR PAWS project in Ukraine, which also
addresses the stray dog issue as well as abused bears. “A baby bear in the wild
usually stays with their mother for two years. When taken away from her too early,
the cub remains traumatised and suffers from a lack of real socialisation.”
Moreover, in contrast with the life appropriate for a bear, Nastia will live a
tormented life if not rescued says veterinarian Khalil of FOUR PAWS.

Selling animals from zoos to private buyers is illegal in Ukraine. Amir Khalil says:
“We urge the Ukrainian government to immediately confiscate the young bear. There’s
no time to lose. This mother and child need to be reunited as quickly as possible.
We are at the full disposal of the authorities and we need to establish a home for
both bears, appropriate for the species.”

Together with the Ukrainian authorities, FOUR PAWS have in the last months already
rescued four bears that had to live in terrible conditions. The latest pictures show
the brutality of the trade in wild animals.

Clitheroe Advertiser & Times:

Two men have become the first in 25 years to be convicted of sheep rustling after the theft of 55 pregnant ewes from a farm in the Ribble Valley.

James Hesketh (20), of Wheatsheaf Avenue, Longridge, was found guilty of handling stolen goods on Thursday after a four-day trial. A second man, John Kirkham (65), of Whittingham Lane, Goosnargh,admitted theft at an earlier hearing.

The sheep, valued between £10,000 and £15,000, were stolen from a field in Chipping in the early hours of the morning on Monday, February 28th, 2011. They were found on a farm in Durham five days later after a local farmer became suspicious and contacted police. Officers then visited a specialist forensic unit which used DNA to link them back to sheep on the victim’s farm.

More Sheep News:

The BBC Report that at least 350 sheep were killed by a speeding train in southern India. Locals from the remote Srikakulam district say the sheep panicked and ran towards the track when they were chased by a leopard.

Telegraph:

An American student wildlife ranger was fighting for his life on Thursday night after being attacked by two chimpanzees at a world famous sanctuary in South Africa.

Guardian:

The director of the London 2012 opening ceremony, Danny Boyle, has moved to assuage concerns about the welfare of animals who will feature in his £27m show by promising to remove them from the stadium early and ensure they do not face a grisly end afterwards.

In response to concerns raised by six animal welfare groups, Boyle has sent a letter to Peta’s founder Ingrid Newkirk to offer a range of assurances over plans to use live animals in his Isles of Wonder-themed opening ceremony…

Wired:

Geologists from the University of Alberta have made a discovery that pushes the existence of animals back by 30 million years.

Life has been around on Earth for about 3.5 billion years, but actual animals – multicellular, eukaryotic organisms – are only half a billion years old. The oldest confirmed animal was a slug-like organism called Kimberella, dated at 555 million years old.

Now, that date has been pushed back. Alberta researchers found fossilised tracks from centimetre-long, slug-like animal, which were left in shallow-water sediment 585 million years ago…