Price is right for Manitoba couple’s plan to rehabilitate orphaned bear cubs

“I hope that they’ll flourish … and get off to a good start in life,” he said.

Judy Stearns said she and her husband, along with volunteers, hope to take in orphaned cubs and care for the animals until they reach about 36 kilograms and are ready for release into the wild.

Stearns said that thanks to Barker’s generous contribution, along with assistance from Zoocheck Canada, the couple’s dream is closer to reality.

“My husband and I were going to be building the facility with our own funds,” Stearns said Wednesday. “Now it can be that much larger and more complex, and we can help the bears even more. It’s fabulous.”

Stearns has been concerned about the options for motherless cubs for some years. She said the couple felt inspired to pursue other ways of caring for young bears rather than putting them in zoos or euthanizing them, so she and her husband approached Zoocheck in 2012 for information and advice.

“Nothing has really happened or progressed in the last three years, so we said, ‘We have this property, the time and the interest. Why not just do it ourselves?’”

Julie Woodyer, Zoocheck Canada’s campaigns director, said the organization contracted John Beecham, a biologist and renowned bear rehabilitation expert in Idaho, to help design the centre and develop protocols to support the animals’ needs and ensure public safety.

Beecham and Zoocheck met with the Stearns and provincial officials, checked the couple’s property and reviewed what the facility would look like. The Stearns had already started accumulating materials for the job and that’s when the organization decided to get behind them and contacted Barker, Woodyer said.

“He thought it was a great program and would be happy to help out,” she said. “He’s very generous and he’s the real deal. He puts his money where his mouth is.”

The centre is to have capacity for 10 cubs, although Woodyer said some years there may be no orphans to send to the Stearns.

Pending final approval from municipal and provincial government authorities, the couple hopes to have the facility running by next spring.

Barker is a well-known animal welfare activist who has called on the Ontario government to ban the spring bear hunt, calling it barbaric, unethical and legislated cruelty that has nothing to do with science. He also paid for the transportation of three elephants from the Toronto zoo to a sanctuary in California and has campaigned passionately for Edmonton Valley Zoo’s lone elephant, Lucy, to make the same move.

Barker said he hopes his donation will prompt people to think more about animal welfare.

“There are countries, particularly in South America, who are ahead of us,” he said.

Stearns said she would love for Barker to come to Manitoba to see the shelter.

“It would be fabulous. He’d be welcome and I’d love to see him here.”

— By Ken Trimble in Edmonton

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said Stearns had been involved with orphaned cub care for years.

by Canadian Press

Price is right for Manitoba couple’s plan to rehabilitate orphaned bear cubs

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