Fw: Two Bear Cubs Rescued!

August 19, 2009

I hope the people who did this burn in Hell.

In the early morning hours of August 5th, after receiving a tip-off from one of their informants, the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team set out for Battambang Province in a remote region of Cambodia to look for two Asiatic black bears suspected of being held at a wildlife trader's house.

After arriving at a small village, the team quickly moved to the rear of a house they suspected of holding the two bears. There they found an oxcart, or wagon, which at first appeared to be empty but on closer inspection revealed two bear cubs tied down in a narrow space underneath the cart.

Watch the rescue of two Asiatic black bears in this sequence of short video clips. (Warning: These videos contain graphic images of wounds the bears sustained while being held in captivity.)

The 4-month-old cubs, a male and female, were frightened, dehydrated, and suffering from multiple snare wounds. Both had lost a paw.

Knowing that the bears might be injured, a veterinarian from the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center accompanied the rescue team to the house and immediately sedated the bears so they could be removed from the cart and treated.

As their wounds were being cleaned, the bears whimpered in their sleep, a haunting sound that underscored the seriousness of their injuries. After giving the cubs antibiotics, the vet gently dressed their wounded limbs to protect them from further infection.

In the video, the male cub, recovering from the sedative and nibbling on a banana, appears to have regained some of his strength. However, the female cub, whose injuries looked older, remained extremely weak, and it wasn't immediately clear if she would survive.

Both cubs were taken to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center, where they are recovering slowly.

After watching the rescue video, please help us stop wildlife traders and unnecessary animal cruelty by making a tax-deductible donation in support of our Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team!