NIPIGON — Small bear cubs can have a big appetite, which makes feeding them a major expense for bear rehabilitation centres.
The Nipigon Bear Cub Rescue is one several across the province receiving dry dog food as a part of a massive donation of over 21,000 kilograms of food from Pet Valu.
Because baby black bears lack the survival skills to stay out in the wild by themselves, the Ministry of Natural Resources brings them to rehabilitation centres like the Nipigon Bear Cub Rescue.
Just outside of Nipigon, the rescue has been running on volunteer time for over 20 years by Dave and Wendy Traintinger.
They're currently taking care of four very young cubs.
“Dave and his wife, they operate Nipigon bears, which is just basically the two of them. They get in bear cubs from all over the place, especially from north Ontario,” said Sandy Donald, director of Ontario Wildlife Rescue.
One of the largest expenses the rescue centre faces is the cost of food, said Donald.
“If you have to spend a lot of money on food, it really limits the resources,” he said.
“There's an awful lot of injured and orphaned wild animals that basically would die,” he said. “There's no other way of putting it.”
“Dried dog food actually works for a number of animals, raccoons, possums, also bears,” he said. “And the term as hungry as a bear is actually true, they eat one hell of a lot.”
Donald said when Pet Valu first called the provincial rescue, they were originally going to donate ten skids of dry dog food. However, when the transport truck showed up for delivery, they received a phone call.
A woman from the fundraising department in Pet Valu called asking if they would be able to take not ten, but 69 skids of dry dog food, said Donald.
“They don't ship that out to the storage, they give it to us instead of it going into the landfill,” he said. “The bears don't read the label.”
This marks the largest such donation the Ontario Wildlife Rescue has ever received, helping improve the quality of care and allowing more wildlife to be taken in, as expenses are now covered, said Donald.
