Saskatoon

Orphaned bear cubs should be in wildlife sanctuary, not zoo: animal protection group

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Bear cubs placed at Saskatoon zoo after mother shot by conservation officers

Three bear cubs will be living at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo after their mother was shot by conservation officers. (Eunice Ketchemonia-Cote/Facebook)

A national wildlife protection group wants three orphaned black bear cubs to be placed in a proper wildlife rehabilitation centre, not in a Saskatoon Zoo.

The cubs were placed at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo on Wednesday after their mother was shot and killed by conservation officers earlier in the week.

Veteran animal advocacy group Zoocheck said it wants to see the animals cared for by an official wildlife rehabilitation centre because zoos are not equipped to perform those duties.

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"Ideally, you want the animals in the hands of licensed rehabilitators who have been trained to return animals to the wild," said campaigns director Julie Woodyer.

"All of their training and facilities are designed for that purpose versus the facilities at the zoo."

The cubs' fate was up in the air until the zoo stepped up and volunteered its space. Conservation officers had given a deadline of Thursday for the bears to find a permanent facility or they would be put down.

Zoocheck said it had been working with a group called Healing Haven Wildlife Rescue near Dorintosh, Sask., which had begun expanding its facility for the three cubs. However, the bears were placed in the zoo instead.

"They'd already put posts in the ground and purchased chain link and so on, but they needed some help in finishing the enclosure," said Woodyer. "We offered, of course, to step up and help them get that completed."

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Woodyer said the bears could have been placed in a smaller enclosure temporarily, then moved to a larger facility once it was finished later this year.

We know that bears are among the worst candidates for captivity in the long run. - Julie Woodyer, Zoocheck

Kevin Murphy, assistant deputy minister for the the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, said the zoo was the only option.

"The Forestry Farm and Zoo in Saskatoon is currently the only facility in Saskatchewan licensed to receive predator wildlife," Murphy said.

Murphy said there were no facilities outside the province that could take the cubs.

"We worked diligently from Ontario through to B.C. and there are no facilities currently available outside the jurisdiction," he said.

Murphy said the province is working with at least one more facility to get licensed to receive predators.

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Zoo director Tim Sinclair-Smith admitted the situation isn't ideal but stressed he and his staff were only looking out for the best interests of the animals.

"Really, what it came down to was making a decision to save these bears," he said. "We've done this because we've got the best intentions for the future of these animals."

Sinclair-Smith said the zoo worked hard to find a suitable placement at a wildlife rehabilitation centre but discovered none of them were able to take the cubs.

Zoocheck is currently running a national campaign asking for stronger, better funded wildlife rehabilitation centres across the country.

"Orphan cubs were just being taken and given to zoos and we know that bears are among the worst candidates for captivity in the long run," said Woodyer.

"It's very hard to recreate an environment that meets their needs," she added.

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The mother bear was shot after it began digging through garbage and showing aggressive behaviour on the Cote First Nation near Kamsack, Sask.

The zoo said the bears will not be put on display and will be kept away from staff as much as possible.

Conservation officers plan to release the bears back into the wild within the next 14 months.

Calls to Healing Haven Wildlife Rescue were not immediately returned.