If your heart was broken over last month's doomed plight of a wayward black bear that lumbered into Albany and was euthanized after 24 hours in a pine tree, perhaps you'll find some of comfort in this: The death of the Albany bear triggered an 11th-hour rescue of six others from an animal farm in this rural Washington County town.
On Tuesday, a half-dozen black bears — four siblings and their parents — began a 2,800-mile ride from the Ashville Game Farm to a sanctuary in San Diego. The rescue is a result of a collaboration between the state Department of Environmental Conservation and two animal rescue groups.
The ursine life-saving was set in motion after one of the organizations — founded by rock bands Styx and REO Speedwagon — called the DEC, pleading to spare the Albany bear. The humane response is the largest of its kind that veteran DEC officers on hand Tuesday said they have ever seen.
"This came out of just the one bear in Albany that died. That this rescue of six bears came from that is so beautiful," said Hannah Shaw, executive director of Rocking to the Rescue and daughter of Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw.
Hannah Shaw had called the DEC on May 27 when word of the young bear stuck in a tree on Rose Court generated a buzz in the media and drew crowds of onlookers to Albany. Shaw's group helps facilitate animal rescues, playing the role of matchmaker for wild animals in captivity in need of sanctuaries.
The DEC told Shaw that officials would let her know if there was anything she could do to help the Albany bear. But the next day, the agency euthanized the 175-pound male cub after it fell 70 feet from the tree. The unwitting local celebrity had to be killed because of the injuries it suffered in the city — it not only fell from the tree, but was also hit twice by cars and wounded with a DEC shotgun. It also had been tagged twice before for coming into neighborhoods and was deemed a danger to the public.
The DEC called Shaw to tell her the unfortunate news, but then asked for her help.
"They said, 'Can you help us with these other six black bears that need a home?'" Shaw recalled.
The Ashville Game Farm had long ago lost its license to hold the bears, and a court order said the ursines had to find a new home by June 5 or they would be removed and euthanized. The farm had legal run-ins in the past. Violations there ranged from a lemur pulling a child's hair to a tiger scratching a patron. The farm was stripped of its license to house its six bruins.
"We have been looking for a home for these bears for a while," said DEC Police Lt. Chris Ruckert.
Shaw reached out to Bobbi Brink, director of Lions, Tigers and Bears, an animal sanctuary in San Diego. Brink figured her facility could hold the bears for about a month. She scrambled to find another sanctuary that could care for the them for the rest of their lives. A black bear can live for 30 years in captivity and cost $10,000 per year to feed alone, Brink said. She found a sanctuary near Denver that could take the bears permanently.
Shaw secured a $52,000 grant from the ASCPA and another $10,000 from Rocking to the Rescue to transport the bears across the country and help build the family's new habitat. The sanctuaries provide an ersatz wilderness with about an acre per bear, telephone poles that mimic trees and a pond-like pool for bathing.
Jack Kittell, a veterinarian, checked out each of the bears Tuesday and said "They all look pretty good."
Later, surrounded by reporters, the bears were still groggy from tranquilizers administered for their physicals.
Ruckert, the DEC lieutenant of 23 years, said the Greenwich farm cared for the bears well but would not be able to do so for the decades to come.
That the DEC facilitated the rescue of the six bears contrasts with the widespread local perception of the agency after the Albany incident when it was painted as heartless and blasted by the public and a few officials for not saving the creature.
"These are very, very tough decisions we have to make," Ruckert said. Even if the Albany bear had not been badly hurt, state law required that it be placed immediately in a sanctuary or euthanized because it had twice intruded into communities, Ruckert said.
"We don't want to see any animals dying," said Joe Therrien, a DEC wildlife biologist. "We all went into the environmental field because we have a passion for what's out here."
The bear family will travel up to 900 miles a day in a trailer in cages. The father, Sebastian, and mother, Sasha, are both 7 years old. Dasha, Dora, Diego and Darwin are between 3 and 5.
Daily, they'll each down four gallons of water, two or three watermelons, about 10 peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches and bags of apples.
On Tuesday, they were led into their cages by doughnuts stuck onto sticks. They were to spend the night parked outside a Saratoga Springs hotel and scheduled to leave for the first leg of their journey before dawn Wednesday.