Bears enjoy new sanctuary after rescue mission

BROTHER bears Benji and Balu were caught as cubs and forced to live a life of misery in a tiny, barren and concrete cage on the side of a restaurant in Azerbaijan.

- NADA FARHOUD

Bored, hungry and suffering from serious injuries, the pair were kept there as nothing more than a novelty to attract customers in the Altiagac region - never walking on grass or hibernating as they would in the wild.

But thanks to the incredible generosity of the residents of the Isle of Wight, the European brown bears will now be able to live out their days in a 3,500 square metre enclosure at the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary in Sandown.

This new home is in stark contrast to the depressing existence they used to have living off scraps of food and whatever else customers threw their way. As a result, the bears, understood to be around 13-years-old, were malnourished, with severe damage to their teeth from stress-induced bar-biting.