Hope for Wildlife to open new black bear cub rehabilitation in Cape Breton

We find out about a new cub sanctuary coming soon to Hope for Wildlife

A wildlife rehabilitation centre in Nova Scotia announced the opening of their black bear cub rehabilitation.

Hope for Wildlife says it’s been a project in the works for more than 20 years.

“We’ve finally been granted permission to start the process of being able to rehabilitate black bear cubs,” said Hope Swinimer, founder of Hope for Wildlife.

Swinimer said the centre has been putting in applications over the years to receive this permission.

“If you look back 15 years ago, we weren’t allowed to do bobcats, we finally got permission to do them,” she said.

Swinimer said there is a lot of work to be done to the 100 acres land the rehabilitation centre has secured in Cape Breton.

“We’ll start blazing the trail, we’ll start doing all that detailed work of etching out exactly what we want to build,” she said.

Swinimer said the Department of Natural Resources will be included in the process to approve each step.

Hope for Wildlife hopes to begin building on the property this spring.

“It really is a dream come true,” Swinimer said. “We’ve been trying to get this to happen for a long, long time and perseverance pays off. We’re incredibly happy to be on this journey.”

The black bear cub rehabilitation will be able to give the cubs the medical care they need with little human contact in order to get them back to the wild.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Lamb

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