Wildheart Animal Sanctuary has submitted a planning application to build a new 2,000sqft multifunction facility – complete with a rooftop viewing terrace – overlooking a new bear enclosure.
The focus of the application is to provide a new habitat for 2 European brown bears, Benji and Balu, who are currently in Azerbaijan.
The Sandown-based sanctuary has been raising funds to help give both bears a new chance of a happier life, thanks to the support of generous donors.
In October 2024, it was announced that they had reached their fundraising target of £150,000, which is being used to build the new habitat for Benji and Balu.
The planning application, which was submitted earlier this month, proposes the building of a new multifunction facility with a rooftop viewing terrace, a bear house facility and an isolation facility.
The new viewing terrace will have a conference room built into its lower floor for meetings or talks.
Both the new bear housing and isolation facility will have 3 dens allowing the charity to take in more bears in the future.
Benji and Balu, who have unfortunately lived a ‘life of misery’ in a cage on the side of a restaurant in Azerbaijan, were kept there as a novelty to attract customers. Due to their unsuitable living conditions, the bears were malnourished, starving and underweight, with severe damage to their teeth from stress-induced bar-biting.
Anybody wishing to make comments on the planning application will have until 4th April, 2025, to make their opinions known. For those wishing to do so, it can be found on the Isle of Wight Council planning portal with the reference 25/00161/FUL.
