BEARS MATTER Ltd.
In 2006, Barbara Murray established BEARS MATTER LTD. with the primary purpose of helping bears in British Columbia but the more she learned about bears the clearer it became that the need to help is global. Therefore, Barb has expanded Bears Matter's mandate to help 6 of the 8 (excluding panda or polar) species of bears in need around the world.
Based in Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, Bears Matter gives back all proceeds it receives from fundraising efforts/partnerships to worthy non-profit organizations helping bears. Bears Matter also is an active sponsor of events, provides volunteer aid, helps promote campaigns that educate and lobbies governments where necessary. Bears Matter focus never waivers, helping maintain healthy bear populations helps whole ecosystems wherever they may be. Habitat protection is key to a species survival and minimizing human-animal conflict, poaching and trophy hunting are areas of great concern to Bears Matter.
If the natural world is to thrive and continue to sustain life on earth, providing precious clean air, water and fertile land, we must take the time, effort and care to truly protect the 'web of life' by first protecting our top predator species.
Bears Matter Annual Christmas sale of Warm Buddies Teddy Bears and Mitts(www.warmbuddy.com ) is always a popular fund raiser as the bear themed products are absolutely unique and of the highest quality. The various colours, types and sizes of plush bears are not only snug-able, washable and gorgeous but their inside hypo-allergenic bags can be heated or cooled for therapeutic purposes.
ALL proceeds($5,850) in 2012 from the annual Christmas sale of Warm Buddies were split between seven organizations that Bears Matter has been supporting over the years in their work to educate, protect species, rehabilitate orphan cubs and conserve bear habitat. Working in partnership with the Warm Buddy Company, www.warmbuddy.com, Bears Matter has raised approximately $40,000 over the last six Christmas seasons.
In 2004, Barb Murray along with the North Shore Black Bear Network, organized a Teddy Bear sale in North Vancouver which raised a record $12,000 for bear rehabilitation. (Barb Murray's conservation work with bears started in June 2001 when she became a volunteer for the North Shore Black Bear Network)
This past 2012 year Bears Matter partnered with Nanaimo's Bernard Callebaut Chocolaterie Company http://bernardcallebaut.com/users/folder.asp which sells delicious pure, hand-made chocolate, without preservatives, to expand the fundraiser dates and number of Warm Buddy items sold. Callebaut Chocolaterie continues to sell Warm Buddy Bears all year to give back to bears! A Warm Bear Hug to Christine and her staff at Bernard Callebaut Chocolaterie
2013 EXCITING NEWS!!! Warm Buddy Company Announces Partnership with Bears Matter in 2013
Look for the Bears Matter tag on Warm Buddy animals and know you are helping a very important cause. (see Bears Matter blog or links section for non-profits supported in 2013)
Bears Matter Note: Bears Matter would like our supporters to take time to learn more about the Warm Buddy Company and their wonderful quality aromatherapy gifts and products www.warmbuddy.com and to learn about their other non-profit partnerships that are making a difference!
Thank you to the Warm Buddy Company and ALL their Wonderful Customers!
MISSION
Bears should and do MATTER to ALL of us. That’s why our mission at Bears Matter Ltd. Is to help conserve all species of wild bear populations. How? By providing both a forum and funding for specific bear conservation issues around the world. It is vital to foster a better understanding of bear behaviour and the necessity to preserve bear habitat because bears need our help around the globe, not just here in BC. Through Blog and campaign Alerts BearsMatter looks forward to encouraging and sharing new research and objectives in the field of bear conservation with wildlife practitioners, stakeholders and the general public.
It is our goal to bring bear protection campaigns and corresponding action alerts to people sharing our love for our wild and urban bears in order to foster a better understanding of what bears need to survive in this ever changing world. Bears are important to our culture, society, economy, spirituality and ecology not only in Canada but around the world. Bears are highly evolved, intelligent and sentient beings that are a critical part of the natural world in which we all live. Our goal is to persuade governing decision makers of this fact and thereby help them draft and adopt appropriate wildlife policies and practises that reflect the value of bears and their natural habitat. By so doing, we hope to raise a public awareness and respect for our dwindling wilderness and the wildlife within it.
At Bears Matter Ltd., the goal is to see a significant reduction in the number of human-bear interactions and conflicts during the coming decade with the hope that this will reduce the need to kill, relocate and manage bears.
The reason Bears Matter supports rehabilitation of any wild orphan bear species as the preferred option for injured or orphaned cubs is that the conservation of individual bears aids research and furthers education and is just the RIGHT THING TO DO! Rehabilitators help baby orphan bears (under 12mos) receive the security and nuturing they need before facing the challenges that life alone brings in the wilderness. Governments do not fund most bear conservation organizations and definitely do not fund wildlife rehabilitators (except perhaps China for their Panda Bear Program)
The reason Bears Matter expanded efforts to take in the world beyond British Columbia is that seven of the known eight species of bears are under extreme threat and where governments have not stepped up we MUST! It is the right thing to do for bears and mankind.
Helping conserve bears is a very rewarding experience and will always be a part of who Barb Murray, of Bears Matter, is. It is her wish that more and more people will lend their voice and a helping hand to keep all eight species of bears in the world viable and wild for many, many more decades and centuries to come.
Barbara Murray
Director, Bears Matter Ltd.
bearsmatter@shaw.ca
Nanoose Bay, B.C.
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