A wild bear cub being separated from its family is a story that is too familiar to the people at Critter Care Wildlife Society.
This past spring, Critter Care took in River, Seymour and Cedar, three orphaned bear cubs, who will need to be cared for at the society until they can be released back into the wild once they are older and stronger next spring.
Until then, Critter Care is launching the with the goal of raising $50,000 to care for the cubs.
In their fundraising campaign, Critter Care explained River鈥檚 and Seymour鈥檚 lives were put in jeopardy when they were with their mother looking for a garbage bin meal in North Vancouver.
The mother bear was killed, but the cubs were rescued and brought to Critter Care in May.
鈥淏oth of them bawled for days and suffered severe stress and uncertainty as they mourned the loss of their mother, who was gone forever. You could hear them crying from all corners of the property in that first week,鈥� reads the campaign message.
In September, Cedar was brought to Critter Care after her mother was killed in accident in Squamish.
Critter Care assistant executive director Winona Reinsma, said the South 91原创 facility typically sees the most bear cubs arrive in the fall.
鈥淲hen the orphan cubs are out there and the berries are gone and they鈥檙e trying to find food, they end up where they鈥檙e not supposed to be.
鈥淭he $50,000 doesn鈥檛 necessarily cover the care for all three for the time, but it鈥檚 a goal.鈥濃��
Reinsma said Critter Care is the only local organization that has is licensed to care for black bear cubs.
鈥淲e are the go-to for bear cubs for southern British Columbia, but there鈥檚 so many factors in how many we get each year.鈥�
This fall, Critter Care staff is especially worried about bears, since wildfires that burned throughout B.C. in the summer may have displaced cubs or destroyed their natural food sources.
While caring for the cubs, Critter Care keeps human contact to a minimum to ensure the bears don鈥檛 become used to staff.
To date, Critter Care has raised $6,000 of its $50,000 goal.
To help raise funds Critter Care is hosting two public paint nights for $45 each.
The first will be hosted by artist Freda Lombard on Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. at Rusty鈥檚 Neighbourhood Pub in Surrey.
The second will be hosted by artist Donna Duval on Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the Honey Bee Centre Beestro in Surrey.
Tickets for both paint night events can be purchased online at eventbrite.com. Search Critter Care Wildlife Paint Night.
