Cholita is Cleared for Take-Off
Animal Stories from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Animal Defenders International (ADI)
June 30, 2015

[UPDATE September 2015: Cholita is Home Free!] 

Cholita snuggles into her straw nest, a pleasure previously denied her, which gives her huge comfort at the ADI Spirit of Freedom rescue center in Peru. Following ADI’s expert vet team’s advice that Cholita is too frail and elderly to fly to sanctuary in the US, we are planning to build her a lovely jungle home in Peru so she can live out her final years in the peace and ease she so deserves. And we need to raise nearly $80,000 to do it! Your gift today will give Cholita the best possible care in a home purpose built and designed to meet her every need!]

Animal Defenders International (ADI)
April 2015

The scars of Cholita’s abusive past at the circus are clear to see – her fingers were brutally cut down to stumps and her teeth were broken, leaving her defenceless. Elderly Cholita is barely recognisable as an endangered Spectacled Bear because she is suffering from severe hair-loss. Where she should have thick, black fur she has none, leaving her almost completely bald.

Cholita "the bear with no hair"...

After a week of urgent negotiations the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) has confirmed that it will issue an import permit for Cholita to enter the US. The real-life Paddington bear will join 33 rescued circus lions on the ‘Spirit of Freedom’ flight chartered by Animal Defenders International from Peru.

Custody of Cholita will be handed to ADI this week and a rescue and veterinary team is on its way to collect her from the zoo near Piura in the northern desert region of Peru. The epic journey will take more than two days with Cholita, along with a young woolly monkey called Neva, expected to arrive at the ADI rescue centre near Lima by Wednesday.

Watch our Save Cholita video appeal

Cholita was kept illegally by a circus and confiscated by Peruvian authorities ten years ago. Since then, the bear has remained at the zoo as no suitable permanent home could be found for her.

The scars of Cholita’s abusive past at the circus are clear to see – her fingers were brutally cut down to stumps and her teeth were broken, leaving her defenceless. Elderly Cholita is barely recognisable as an endangered Spectacled bear because she is suffering from severe hair-loss. Where she should have thick, black fur she has none, leaving her almost completely bald.

Last week, ADI President Jan Creamer postponed the Spirit of Freedom flight for up to two weeks to give the US authorities time to process Cholita’s application, pushing our rescue costs up by a further £3,500 per week in care costs alone.

ADI’s General Legal Counsel told the USFWS that ADI could hold out another 1-2 weeks to give them more time to process the application. ADI also agreed to take legal custody of Cholita in Peru – even though we would have been left to find another home if her entry had been refused. The gamble has paid off and the USFWS has confirmed that Cholita’s entry permit for the US will be granted.

ADI’s Operation Spirit of Freedom rescue mission has lasted many months, spanning two countries and involving the rescue of 70 animals. Working with the authorities to enforce Peru’s ban on wild animals in circuses, and starting the same process in Colombia, ADI has raided numerous circuses all over Peru in the biggest rescue of its kind.

The epic mission is costing over £800,000 with the biggest single cost, £130,000, being the Spirit of Freedom flight to the US, scheduled for April 20th. Cholita will be on board with the 24 lions rescued from Peru’s circuses and during a stop-off in Bogota nine more lions rescued in Colombia. All are to be rehomed at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado.

In a separate airlift provided by the Peruvian Air Force, almost 40 native wild animals - 28 monkeys, 4 kinkajous, and 4 coatis - rescued by ADI are being relocated to jungle habitats being built by ADI in the Amazon at the Pilpintuwasi Sanctuary near Iquitos, Peru.

As ADI President Jan Creamer said “We vowed not to leave anyone behind when we instigated ADI’s Operation Spirit of Freedom almost a year ago.... when the ADI Spirit of Freedom Flight takes off in three weeks time there will be no more wild animals in circuses in Peru.”

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