Animal Rescue Group Founded By Rock Legends Save NY Black Bears

The fate of one Albany black bear has, in turn, helped save the lives of six others. You may remember the plight of the Albany area black bear last month. The bear wandered into a residential area and climbed high up a pine tree, setting up a standoff with DEC officers, and making the bear a local hero, of sorts. Sadly, the bear would later fall out of the tree and later be euthanized...but the response from animal rescue groups, to save the Albany bear, has actually helped save a family of black bears being kept on a rural farm.

A last minute effort from an animal rescue group known as Rock to the Rescue has saved a Washington County family of black bears. The group, formed by the members of Styx and REO Speedwagon, worked in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Conservation to have the four siblings and their parents shipped cross country from the Ashville Game Farm to a sanctuary in San Diego  The Executive Director of Rock to the Rescue is Hannah Shaw, who is the daughter of none other Tommy Shaw of Styx. She had worked diligently with the DEC to save the Albany bear  only to hear the bad news. The DEC remembered her dedication and tenacity and reached out to her and other members of Rock to the Rescue about the family of six bears being kept on the Ashville Game Farm. See, the thing is...the farm had lost it's license and a court order said the ursines had to find a new home by June 5 or they would be removed and euthanized. That's when Shaw reached out to friends....

Shaw reached out to Bobbi Brink, director of Lions, Tigers and Bears, an animal sanctuary in San Diego. Brink figured her facility could hold the bears for about a month. She scrambled to find another sanctuary that could care for the them for the rest of their lives. A black bear can live for 30 years in captivity and cost $10,000 per year to feed alone, Brink said. She found a sanctuary near Denver that could take the bears permanently.

Indeed, a happy ending. Here is Hannah talking about Rock to the Rescue