Defender Radio: The Podcast For Wildlife Advocates And Animal Lovers

In October I received a slew of emails about an injured bear cub in a community outside of Calgary, Alberta. Ordinarily, I’d just do a quick google search and provide the concerned animal lover with contact information for their closest wildlife rehabber. But that didn’t work in the case – because Alberta doesn’t allow for the rehabilitation of orphaned bear cubs. Unlike neighboring British Columbia, and here in Ontario, Alberta has strict policies that will not allow several species of orphaned wildlife to be rehabbed – and they don’t really offer any studies or scientifically-based reasons as to why. As one can expect, this policy, particularly in the case of this injured bear cub, named Russell by area children, led to an outcry. Local wildlife lovers have come together to push for change to the policy – both through a temporary permit for the local Cochrane Ecological Institute, which is set up and did rehab bears and bear cubs for decades, and for other cubs moving forward. The Fur-Bearers have proudly s