GIRLS CARE 4 BEARS.

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Author: Unknown

LIFE

Dateline: VANCOUVER, British Columbia â€"

Last November, Alev Olcay, 13, and her sister, Lara, 10, noticed an article in a local newspaper about two bear cubs that had been caught raiding a garbage container at a nearby supermarket. The bears were handcuffed, taken away, and killed.

"I was really shocked and really angry," Alev told The (Toronto) Globe and Mail. She and her sister contacted friends through an Internet messaging service and mounted a campaign to save orphaned bear cubs from extermination.

The area of Vancouver (population, 2 million) where the Olcays live borders mountainous wilderness. Bears often wander from the woods into the city to forage for food. Last fall, about 20 orphaned bears were apprehended in Vancouver, including one cub that had barged into a house to sample a fresh baked pie. Adult bears are tranquilized and returned to the bush. Young orphaned bears are routinely killed, however. The likelihood of their survival if restored to the woods is thought to be small.

To save the young bears, the Olcay girls and their friends formed a group called Care4thebears, which established a Web site, distributed posters, made TV appearances, and wrote a letter of protest to British Columbia's provincial government. Bill Barisoff, the minister for Water, Land, and Air Protection, said the campaign convinced him to change the government's policy on bears. From now on, orphaned cubs caught in the city will be sent to a rehabilitation facility and later released into the wild when their odds of survival are better.

Wildlife rehab centers in the province are financed by public donations, and Care4thebears is now raising money for the facilities. "I learned if you're persistent, you can usually get what you want," said Alev. "You just have to believe in yourself, and you go for it."

PHOTO (COLOR): Alev Olcay and her younger sister, Lara, spearheaded a successful campaign to stop the British Columbia government from killing orphaned bears such as this one.

PHOTO (COLOR)