34 years!…..It is the sentence wich „Oldie”, as was called by the zoo keepers, was condemned without fault. A bear that had a name only in documents, but no one knew. With her sad eyes blurred by cataracts today, she saw thousands of people pass in front of her and, although she desperately aked for help, no one did!
She was just a cub, a little fur ball when some people threw her in a cage with another bear, one year older than her. Although both were at the age when they should have run free through the woods , they were not allowed to. They were condemned to stay in that cage in the chicken farm courtyard in Sfântu Gheorghe- Covasna. It wasn’t long before the bears were moved to the banks of the Danube, in Galați, in the Gârboavele forest. How happy the two must have been when they saw the forest again! How many dreams have they made and how many plans!
Unfortunately, the change the cage with another one, a concrete pen surrounded by thick iron bars. 27 years later, in 2013 they were moved with their daughter, Codruța, and another bear into a larger pen with grass and trees. One summer night one of the bears attacked the oldie and she was seriously injured.
Her wounds were sewn, the oldie recovered with difficulty but had to woke up again in the concrete pen. For her there was no room in the hedge with grass, trees and pool. With her hart broken Martina resigned herself.
Her hind legs started to hurt terribly and she was moving harder and harder day by day. During the long days she either slept or weeld her pen or just swayed in a rhythm known only by her. She ended up unable to lift her hind legs and run out of nails. They dull due to the pain. The oldie crawlled her legs on the frozen concrete in the winter or to hot in the summer.
Another 4 years of „detention” passed until on a hot summer day the AMP Libearty team left in the middle of the night for the Danube to release her from prison. The beautiful bear looked at them with sad eyes. She sniffled then and it seemed that long forgotten smells had returned. These people smelled of bears, honey, acorns, fir cones…they smelled like home.
In the evening the old bear was home again, in the mountains! This time in a place were no one will ever lock her up again, where she will be cared for and protected; in the forest of happy bears – Libearty!
We wish this oldie many happy days, at leas now in her golden age. Welcome in Libearty beauty!
We thank our partners at WTG Germany for the financial support for transport and emergency medical treatment so necessary in this case. You are wonderful, as usual!
You can read more about them here:
https://welttierschutz.org/en/
https://welttierschutz.org/en/projects/bear-sanctuary-in-romania/
https://www.facebook.com/WelttierschutzgesellschaftEv/
