In August 2011, bear Katya made the news headlines and since then her life has been covered extensively by the international media. Katya lives in a small cage – much too small for her size – in a rusty bus which is parked in an industrial zone in St. Petersburg. Alertis was inundated with questions, both from people in the Netherlands as well as from abroad.  Katya’s situation was reported on many times through the website Bear Alert. This encouraged Alertis to start a thorough investigation and to take the lead on behalf of a number of large animal welfare organizations:  WSPA, IFAW, Vier Pfoten, Animals Asia, RSPCA, International Animal Rescue, Born Free Foundation, Free the Bears Fund as well as the Humane Society International from the USA.

This has proved to be an extremely difficult task. Read why in the report of our endeavours.