site.btaSofia Airport Hosts Exhibition Celebrating 20 Years of Belitsa Bear Sanctuary

An exhibition titled The Rescued Ones: 20 Years of History at Sofia Airport highlights the development of the Bear Sanctuary Belitsa over the past two decades, from its founding to its current mission, the sanctuary Director of Animal and Facility Management Kalina Valchinkova told BTA here on Tuesday.

"We have successfully rescued all the dancing bears in Europe and are now concentrating on animals kept in unsuitable conditions or held illegally," Valchinkova stated. "Our goal is to offer a sanctuary for as many animals as we can," she added.

The exhibition, running until the end of September, illustrates the journey of a bear from rescue to a new life in the park. "Currently, we are responsible for the care of 16 bears in the park. Of these, eight are former dancing bears, and the remaining eight were rescued from inadequate living conditions," she said.

The last dancing bear in Bulgaria was rescued in 2007, and the practice ended in 2017 across the Balkan Peninsula. Valchinkova emphasized the intensive recovery program and dedicated team caring for bears arriving with stress and health issues, with the current goal to fully equip the on-site medical centre.

Sofia Airport Environment Social Governance Director Antoaneta Stoyanova said that the exhibition symbolizes efforts to improve conditions for animals and nature and invited visitors to learn about the history of rescuing dancing bears.

The sanctuary Director, Dimitar Ivanov, highlighted over 20 years of dedicated work in rescuing and caring for bears, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Water and local communities, which led to the establishment of the Belitsa bear refuge.

The bear sanctuary at Belitsa is the biggest one in Europe, currently encompassing an area of 120,000 sq m in a region that is a natural home to the brown bear, a protected species in Bulgaria. The sanctuary is also a tourist attraction with thousands of Bulgarian and foreign visitors a year.

It was set up in 2000 by the Four Paws global animal welfare organization jointly with France’s Brigitte Bardot Foundation to provide a sanctuary for the re-adaptation of bears forced to dance for entertainment, a popular street attraction in Eastern Europe in the 20th century. It was officially unveiled on June 5, 2004. All registered dancing bears in Bulgaria have since been saved.

There currently are 16 bears at Belitsa, among them rescues from Serbia, Albania, Romania, and North Macedonia.