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Local Girl Lands Dream Job Helping Animals And Brings Creature Comfort To Rescued Bears In India
Boston, MA – February 2007
A local girl with a lifelong love of animals has landed her dream job working for a charity that helps suffering animals all over the world. Laurence Van Atten from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts studied Animal Welfare and Animal Behavior at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Last year she spent three months in India at a sanctuary for rescued bears which is funded by charity International Animal Rescue (IAR), whose head office is in Sussex, England. Now she has made it possible for IAR to open an office in the US and is using her experiences in India to spread the word about the charity’s work.
Laurence worked on providing various forms of environmental enrichment for the blind bears at the facility to try to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. Enrichment is a crucial factor in preventing boredom and promoting natural behaviors. By increasing the opportunities for the bears at the sanctuary to forage, their explorative and manipulative instincts were stimulated, consequently challenging the animals on a cognitive level.
The project was highly successful and some bears that did not normally leave their dens were running around their enclosures investigating and playing happily with a variety of ‘toys.’ These ranged from simple bundles of straw to ‘honey logs’ – logs with holes drilled and smeared on the inside with honey that the bears lick spend hours licking out; from ordinary rubber tires to ‘wobble trees’ - baskets of fruit mounted on wooden poles that the bears learn to shake to make the fruit drop – all just as they would in the wild. High quality digital pictures and video are available upon request.
Laurence then completed her degree and moved back to Massachusetts. However, she was so impressed with the work of International Animal Rescue that she agreed
to open the first ever IAR office in America. Laurence will be organizing lectures and fundraising events to raise awareness of IAR’s efforts and she is now available for interviews, comments, and speaking engagements. A documentary about Laurence’s work with International Animal Rescue is being shown on local cable stations throughout Massachusetts and is available upon request.
The tradition of the ‘dancing’ bears goes back to the 16th century to a time when sloth bears were used to entertain Mughal emperors at the Taj Mahal. Sloth bears are listed as an endangered species making it illegal to kill, capture or sell the bears. Nevertheless, an estimated 600 sloth bears are still being ‘danced’ on the streets of India today.
Each year, at least 100 cubs are illegally captured from the wild to be sold on the black market. The cub’s teeth are knocked out by force of an iron bar and their claws are pulled, rendering them defenseless. A hole is then made through the bear’s muzzle using a hot poker that has been heated up over a flame. A rope is then passed through the hole and out of the nostril before the bear undergoes the painful training process.
The Indian Parliament outlawed ‘dancing’ bears in 1972, although officials did not have a place to house the confiscated bears. Zoos would not accept them because of their deformities. With their teeth and nails removed they could not be returned to the wild, as they would not be able to eat properly, dig, climb or defend themselves. To date, more than 360 bears have been rescued and are now cared for at several facilities in India funded by IAR and managed by Indian charity Wildlife SOS.
For more information, please visit http://www.iar-us.org/ or contact
Laurence Van Atten,
Phone: (508)826-1083
Email: vanatten@yahoo.com; Laurence@iar-us.org
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