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Reading: Un-bear-able! Two caged bears living on scraps from restaurant diners set to be rescued
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Need To Know > UK > Un-bear-able! Two caged bears living on scraps from restaurant diners set to be rescued
Rescue effort underway for two caged bears in need of a new home after a life of captivity, with a UK sanctuary seeking funds for their rehabilitation.
UK

Un-bear-able! Two caged bears living on scraps from restaurant diners set to be rescued

Andy Crick
Last updated: May 2, 2024 11:34 am
Andy Crick Published May 2, 2024
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Benji and Balu locked up behind bars whilst living on scraps from restaurant diners. (Picture: Jam Press)
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Two caged bears who live on scraps given to them by restaurant diners are set to be rescued.

Benji and Balu have spent their whole lives locked up behind bars.

The hungry European Brown Bears were found by staff from a British animal sanctuary.

READ MORE: Officials seize BEAR from family who found it and raised it as pet

They now want to bring the pair from Azerbaijan to the UK.

However, The Wildheart Animal Sanctuary needs to raise £150,000 to make it happen.

Rescue effort underway for two caged bears in need of a new home after a life of captivity, with a UK sanctuary seeking funds for their rehabilitation.
Benji and Balu locked up behind bars whilst living on scraps from restaurant diners. (Picture: Jam Press)

The cash would help them make an enclosure for them at the wildlife park in Sandown, Isle of Wight.

They would be the first bears to be on the island for three decades, as reported by Need To Know.

A spokesperson for The Wildheart Animal Sanctuary said: “These ‘restaurant bears’, have sadly spent their life illegally imprisoned in a cage on the side of a restaurant.

Rescue effort underway for two caged bears in need of a new home after a life of captivity, with a UK sanctuary seeking funds for their rehabilitation.
One of the bears inside the cage. (Picture: Jam Press)

“Living off scraps of food or whatever the customers threw their way, with no respite from the stream of gawping tourists.

“Benji and Balu were found malnourished, starving, and underweight, with severe damage to their teeth from stress-induced bar-biting to cope with their everyday nightmare.

“They are currently languishing in a tiny metal cage in Azerbaijan with no area to hibernate, no water for bathing, no soil under their feet and, at the moment, no prospect of a normal life.”

It wants to build a 3,500 sq m habitat, complete with pools, streams, caves, boulders, platforms and woodland for them.

Rescue effort underway for two caged bears in need of a new home after a life of captivity, with a UK sanctuary seeking funds for their rehabilitation.
Benji and Balu locked up behind bars whilst living on scraps from restaurant diners. (Picture: Jam Press)

Christine Harty, head of fundraising, said: “We know this is going to be a monumental undertaking.

“However, we believe with the help of our amazing community on the Isle of Wight and across the UK, we can smash our fundraising goal and ensure Benji and Balu get the second chance in life they deserve.”

READ MORE: VIDEO: Moment two PANDAS attack zookeeper in front of screaming onlookers

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