N.S. wildlife sanctuary welcomes upcoming changes to bear rehab policies

N.S. wildlife sanctuary welcomes upcoming changes to bear rehab policies


An animal rehabilitation centre on Nova Scotiaโ€™s Eastern Shore is looking forward to the opportunity to rehabilitate orphaned black bear cubs as the Department of Natural Resources readies to issue required permits as early as this spring.

โ€œItโ€™s very exciting for us to think that weโ€™re that close finally,โ€ said Hope Swinimer, founder of Hope for Wildlife in Seaforth, N.S.

โ€œThe message it sends, that our government is saying, hey, it is important that we do help, that these animals arenโ€™t destroyed. There is an option. It costs government no money at all. Letโ€™s take these steps and move forward,โ€ she said.

Swinimer said she has received a handful of calls each year about black bear cubs in distress, but her facility has been unable to offer help to the animals because Nova Scotia is one of a handful of provinces and territories that do not rehabilitate black bears that are injured, or cubs if they are orphaned.

A woman wearing a t-shirt hold up an American marten.
Hope Swinimer is excited about the chance to rehabilitate black bear cubs at Hope for Wildlife. (Aly Thomson/CBC)

An emailed statement to CBC from the provinceโ€™s Department of Natural Resources said the Houston government made a promise as part of its mandate when elected in 2021 โ€œto provide options for regulated wildlife centres to rehabilitate orphaned bear cubs.โ€

The department is confident it will be ready โ€œto provide permits to facilitiesโ€ by the spring, the statement said.

Bear cub rehabilitation has been a controversial subject in Nova Scotia, most notably after an orphaned black bear cub was taken from Hope for Wildlife and euthanized in 2020

Soon after, the wildlife refuge submitted a proposal to the provincial government asking permission to rehabilitate orphaned cubs. It was denied the following year.

Swinimer said a change in policy will help the facility further its mission. 

โ€œWeโ€™re really hoping that if this does go forward, it will help in so many ways that we never saw possible,โ€ she said. 

A woman hold a vulture.
Brenda Boates says Cobequid Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre will not be applying for a permit to rehabilitate bear cubs. (Emma Davie/CBC)

Brenda Boates, the wildlife operations manager at Cobequid Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, said her facility in Brookfield, N.S., will not be applying for a permit to rehabilitate bears. 

โ€œWe rely on volunteers, donations and fundraising. So we donโ€™t have the facility, the space or the money to put up a building to house these cubs by themselves and we certainly donโ€™t have the staff to support that,โ€ said Boates. 

The Cobequid centre rehabilitates birds, amphibians, reptiles and some mammals. 

Boates expressed some reservations about the prospect of rehabilitating bears in Nova Scotia, raising concerns about how a bearโ€™s survival skills might be negatively impacted by excessive human contact or the danger of relocating an animal in another bearโ€™s territory. 

But she said it could work if done properly. 

โ€œThere are a lot of really good rehabbers that do it successfully. And thereโ€™s a lot of really good wildlife rehab institutes. By that I mean big large places that take multiple species with acres and acres and acres of land that do it quite successfully,โ€ said Boates. 

Swinimer said much of the hard work has already been done at Hope for Wildlife. 

โ€œA lot of the staff Iโ€™ve hired through the years have had experience working with black bears and weโ€™ve learnt a lot on cage design, how to keep an animal safe, how to keep the animals that are naturally, naturally around us safe, how to keep the public safe,โ€ she said. 

Swinimer said a number of established bear rehabilitation centres have reached out to her offering guidance on how to build an appropriate facility. 

Rehabilitating orphaned cubs can be challenging and โ€œmust be done very carefully,โ€ making the creation of proper policies and procedures important, the Natural Resources Department said in its statement.

The department stressed that Nova Scotians who believe theyโ€™ve found an orphaned bear cub should contact Natural Resources and not attempt to take the cub themselves because the mother is likely to be nearby.



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