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.