WSPA fears rescued bears may have died in Pakistan floods

The floods in Pakistan, caused by what is being described as the ‘heaviest monsoon flooding since 1929’, have resulted in severe damage at the WSPA-funded Kund Park bear sanctuary. As many as 23 bears are feared dead as the floodwaters rose as high as 60 ft above river level.

Mike Baker, CEO of WSPA International said, “For the bears involved, this is a tragedy twice over; these bears had suffered such terrible cruelty before they were brought to the sanctuary. Losing them to a natural disaster now would be devastating for our staff, many of whom worked tirelessly to rescue these bears, as well as for WSPA supporters worldwide.”

The sanctuary is operated by WSPA member society Bioresource Research Centre (BRC) whose staff stayed on location as long as they could before they had to evacuate for personal safety; hundreds of people have been reported killed by the rising floods.

“At the moment it is impossible to get back into the sanctuary – the whole surrounding area is now submerged,” said Fakhar Abbas, Director of BRC, “We hope we’ll be able to assess the impact soon, as we are all deeply concerned about the safety of the bears in these unprecedented floods.”

WSPA and BRC are working closely together to monitor the situation, and we will update our website as soon as we find out more.

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