All privately-owned bears had to vegetate in small cages outside restaurants, the idea being to attract customers. They were kept in totally inappropriate conditions in cages which were much too small, some of the animals have severe behavioral problems. Born in the forests of Kosovo and Albania they were brutally snatched away from their mother by animal traders.

FOUR PAWS, an international animal welfare organization based in Vienna, Austria already brought this disgrace to the Kosovo government’s attention over ten years ago. In November 2010, the ban on the private keeping of bears in the Republic of Kosovo finally came into force. At that time, there was estimated to be 15 brown bears being kept in miserable conditions.

Nevertheless, until recently there was little the Ministry of Environment could actually do to prevent it. “As bears living in captivity cannot be released into the wild anymore and we had no place to keep them appropriately for their species, we were helpless against illegal trade and keeping”, explained Kosovo’s Minister of Environment, Dardan Gashi.

Therefore, in cooperation with Ministry of Environment and Municipality of Pristina FOUR PAWS got an exclusive right to keep brown bears in the Republic of Kosovo and agreed to build up a bear sanctuary on a 16-hectare area of woodland nearby Pristina. This has created the conditions to confiscate the animals and to keep them appropriately afterwards.

Starting in March 2013, FOUR PAWS assisted by KFOR and in some cases by the police force were rescuing “restaurant bears” in Prizren, Germia, Dulje, Rugova Valley, Peja and Pristina. However, not all bears had a chance to start their new life in the sanctuary. Two male bears Rambo und Luta (aged approx. 15 months) had been leading a miserable existence in a cramped cage outside a supermarket in Mitrovica. The owner had sold the bears to an animal dealer because he knew that they were about to be confiscated. The dealer then passed them on to a group of men who killed the animals and took organs from them.

The Bear Sanctuary was officially opened on 26^th of September, 2014 with 13 bears in adaptation enclosures by Shpëtim Rudi, Deputy Minister of Environment, Heli Dungler, Founder and President of Four Paws, H.E. Johann Brieger, Ambassador of Austria, Roswitha Brieger, Ambassador’s spouse and others in presence of diplomatic corps in Pristina. In the bear park the bears gradually learn to renew their instincts and natural behavior. Starting in autumn 2014, they will be able to move into large enclosures of several hectares.