Dear Friend,
I want to tell you about Yuri. Yuri is a brown bear. He was born in winter and like all bears cubs he was blind and had no teeth. His mother was hibernating in her den, deep inside the Russian forest. Outside it was very cold and everything was covered by thick snow. Inside the den with his mother, however, Yuri felt safe and warm.

Then, when Yuri was only a few weeks old, some hunters came. Dogs were sent into the den. Yuri's mother was woken up by the dogs. She tried to protect her cub, but when she climbed out of the den, she was shot by the hunters.

Every year between 3,000 and 4,000 brown bears are hunted and killed like this. There are only 110,000 brown bears in Russia today and they are almost extinct in the rest of Europe. Their meat and fur are sold for thousands of dollars, so people will continue to hunt them. The cubs are usually left to die. Without their mothers they can't survive.

Yuri, however, was lucky. He was found by one of the hunters and he was taken to The Russian Bear Orphanage, 350 kilometers northwest of Moscow. The orphanage is run by Professor Valentin Pazhetnov. Here, Yuri will be looked after. He and other orphan bears will be fed and taught how to survive. When they are old enough they will be taken to a nature reserve in Bryansk, where they will be protected. Professor Pazhetnov hopes that in the future some bears will be released in other European countries where they are now extinct.

So far over a hundred bear cubs have been saved by the orphanage. Seventy bears have been returned to the forest. We want to save more. That's why I'm writing to you now. Money is needed for food, transport and for people to look after the baby bears. Yuri and his friends need your help. Please send a donation today. Together we can save the orphan bears.

Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Fred O'Regan