Rescue Suffering Polar Bear from Overheated Zoo

  • by: Care2 member
  • recipient: Morelia Mayor Wilfrido Lázaro Medina

"A polar bear named Yupi has endured more than 20 years of suffering in a barren concrete zoo enclosure in Mexico with sweltering temperatures and no physical or mental stimulation. She was supposed to be relocated to a polar bear sanctuary in Britain, but a recent wave of gang violence outside the zoo has postponed her rescue.

Yupi was captured when she was only a few months old after her mother was cruelly shot and killed by hunters in Alaska. She was removed from her home and brought to a city zoo in Morelia, Mexico, where she has suffered in up to 95-degree temperatures in a barren concrete enclosure for the last 21 years. The enclosure was originally designed for a grizzly bear, not a polar bear who thrives in sub-zero Arctic temperatures. Yupi spends 17 hours a day locked in the darkness of a 15-foot-wide indoor pen without windows. She is allowed seven hours per day in a larger concrete enclosure with only a warm, chlorine-filled pool and three tree stumps, one of which is electrified to prevent her from touching it. The concrete floors and walls of her enclosure absorb heat throughout the day and are hot to touch, so Yupi reportedly spends most of her time pacing in a small patch of shade or desperately trying to cool herself off in the warm pool.

A lack of physical space and mental stimulation is cruel for any animal, but polar bears’ skin has a layer of blubber designed to retain heat, making the sweltering Mexican temperatures even less bearable. A 15-acre polar bear sanctuary with snowy hills, caves, ice-cold lakes, and Arctic plants is waiting for Yupi, but the gang violence outside her zoo is forcing her rescuers to postpone her relocation. Demand Mexican authorities begin immediate intervention to stop this violence and devise a plan to safely relocate Yupi."

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