Misha and Dasha had been entertaining diners at a riverside restaurant in Armenia for their entire lives, confined to welded cages that rusted over time. However, after enduring ten long years in captivity, they have finally been rescued and will be living in a mountain sanctuary from now on. This rescue mission was made possible thanks to the generous donations.
Sadly, Misha and Dasha are not the only bears in Armenia who are being kept in cages for the amusement of restaurant and shop patrons. A charity has warned that dozens of other bears are in a similar situation, and are in dire need of help.
Misha and Dasha, two brown bears, were trapped in a cramped cage inside an Armenian restaurant for ten years, where they were put on display for tourists. They lived a monotonous life, pacing back and forth in their enclosure, desperately seeking ways to alleviate their boredom.
In their attempts to find some form of entertainment, they would frequently bang their heads against the bars or climb them. Their predicament was made even more unbearable by the cage’s location on the riverbank, which meant that it would often flood. At one point, the water levels rose so high that the bears were almost drowned.
“A few years back, the river flooded and the bears almost drowned,” Lis Key, from International Animal Rescue, told The Dodo. “As you can see from the rescue photos, the rescue team had to cut through the cages to release them, so they must have been trapped when the river flooded and in serious danger of drowning.”
After massive efforts from both the International Animal Rescue (IAR) and the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets, the restaurant owners were convinced to relinquish custody of Misha and Dasha. The two brown bears were then transferred to the care of these organizations, where they will be provided with a better life and a more suitable living environment.
Thanks to these animal lovers’ great efforts, these two lovely creatures are finally freed!