In December 2016, FOUR PAWS received an urgent request for help from the Albanian Veterinary Inspectorate. In a small mountain village, a young bear was said to be in imminent danger. The owner was no longer willing nor able to care for the animal.

When the FOUR PAWS team arrived, they found the bear chained in a small shack next to the owner’s house. He was very distressed, and in panic was trying to free himself from the tight chain. FOUR PAWS acted immediately and contacted Tirana Zoo, which was willing to take over the bear temporarily.

Riku, whose young life has been marked by suffering, was safely transferred on 3 May 2017 by a FOUR PAWS team to BEAR SANCTUARY Belitsa, run by FOUR PAWS in cooperation with FONDATION BRIGITTE BARDOT. Due to international transport regulations, the journey went via Macedonia and Greece. This meant many hours on the road for one of Europe’s saddest bears and the FOUR PAWS team. Finally, they arrived at Riku's new home in Bulgaria.

It seems like they couldn't wait to catch up where they left off before hibernation. 

If you remember, last year we announced how these two bears were socialised and were enjoying every moment at their forever home at BEAR SANCTUARY Belitsa. Indeed, they have had a great summer and autumn together, however, due to Riku's energetic personality (wanting to play all the time) and Jeta's preference of preparing for hibernation, our on-site team decided to separate them during winter. Following that, both bears have had a peaceful winter and hibernated for a few good months.

However as the mating season was approaching, by the beginning of spring, the team decided to reunite them again and since then they are together all the time.

Watching them being so happy, it's an inspiration for all of us, and almost impossible to imagine that before their rescue in 2017, they were known as 'two of Europe's saddest' bears.

Nowadays, they live in harmony with each other, and their cohabitant Nastasja. When Jeta wants some quiet time, he then tries to bond with Nastasja.

In October 2019, with over 30 bears rescued from bad keeping over the past years and pressure from advocating and campaigning by several national and international NGOs incl. FOUR PAWS, Albania makes a big change to toughen measures against environmental crimes.

The 'Law on Wild Fauna Protection and Preservation' was amended and as result, a 'National Council on Wild Fauna' is to be established with the task to mainly monitor and contribute to the implementation of the new law. Although the law does not explicitly legally ban the keeping of bears in Albania, there and only very few bears remaining in bad keeping in Albania. For the remaining bears and other native wildlife species, there are plans by the Albanian government to establish a sanctuary close to Tirana.