– Before Rescue – Dancing Bears

Below – ‘Living’ Conditions.

Above – After the Rescues – Cutting the Chains for a new life of Freedom – see below.

From Mark; WAV;

This post is advanced information on an issue which we would like you to help with.

We are setting up a donation link with ARKA at the moment; and hope this will be ready in the next few days.  An amended version of this post will be produced when the donation link is ready.  In the meantime you can see what this involves;

Regards Mark and Venus (WAV founders).

Current Information:

We (WAV and SAV) are currently trying to help out some old friends back in Serbia who we have known (via SAV – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/  ) for many years.  They are dedicated ‘animal people’ as you can see and run the association named ‘ARKA’ which is based in Novi Sad in Serbia.

ARKA are currently taking care of 50 stray dogs, 25 stray cats and 3 brown bears, which were rescued dancing bears; and which ARKA have a problem in being able to provide adequate food for them. They are not starving and going without, but more support is needed. 

The dogs and cats are rescued from the streets and the bears were confiscated from illegal owners who often used them for dancing bear performances.  You can see the conditions in which they lived in a couple of the photographs below.

After official confiscation of the bears which was done in cooperation with the relevant authorities, and which took place in the year 1999, the court decided to hand over (at that time) 7 bears to our ARKA; to care for them as sanctuary. It was originally planned that bears should be with ARKA for only one or two years whilst another sanctuary was to be built in one of the national parks.

But then everything changed ! – the bombarding of Serbia and the Balkans wars arrived and the bears were never found their national park home.

Today, some 21 years later, 3 ex dancing bears named Marija, Uske and Bozana are still surviving and with ARKA (see the video above). For the last 10 years the relevant Serbian government Ministry has helped ARKA with about 20% of the total costs for their food. The bears have a good, healthy diet and are being fed with fruits, vegetables and meat; a much better diet than when they were dancing bears – see the photos of their situation then..

Now we need your help and support to aid ARKA in purchasing food for the dogs, cats and bears they have at their facility.

Above – Before Rescue

Below – After Rescue

Here is the link to the ARKA donations:

CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS – maybe a few days more.

You can make donation via this link.

As we have said, long before WAV was started; we had some links for (Pavel and Branka) at ARKA and the bears on our ‘Serbian Animals Voice’ (SAV) site.  Here is one of the links from the past which show the bears many years ago:

Serbia: ARKA Rehabilitation Centre ‘Banostor’ Shelter Bears Come Out of Hibernation to Give Their Weather Forecast

As soon as we have a donation link established we will update and re issue this post with the new information.

So be ready for more in the near future.

Regards Mark and Venus.