If Baloo could speak in ways we understand, his holiday wish might sound like this.
The cold cuts through the bars, but it is not the winter that hurts me the most. It is the life I have been forced to endure. Day after day, I pace and rock in distress, my spirit worn down by more than two decades of solitary confinement. This isn’t the life a bear should live, but it is the only life I have known.
For “food,” I am tossed cornflakes and lemonade. Children poke at me with sticks through the bars. Soda bottles fly at me, some hit me in the head. People laugh as I try to open them, just trying to help my dry throat. Sometimes, people give me alcohol. Fear and confusion have become my constant companions. I should have spent the last 25 years roaming lush forests, bathing in clear rivers, and climbing tall trees. But all I know are walls, chains, and the hollow echo of human cruelty.
I am strong, majestic, and wild, yet my freedom has been stolen. My home is a squalid enclosure at a ski resort. My companions are not other bears, but indifferent humans who see me as a sideshow. My life has been measured in small acts of survival and endurance, not joy or choice.
There is hope, though. Compassionate people from around the world are fighting for me. World Animal Protection and Millions of Friends Association are ready with 69 acres of woodland, meadows, and ponds—my own space to roam, to rest, to live alongside other rescued bears. Libearty Sanctuary is waiting. I could finally feel the earth under my paws, hear the wind in the trees, and know what it means to be free.
The law is on my side. Private individuals have been banned from keeping bears in Romania since 2005, yet exceptions were made for my captor. People argue I am too old to move, but older bears thrive in sanctuaries. Every day that passes in this cold, lonely cage is a day stolen from the life I deserve.
I do not ask for toys or ribbons. I do not ask for applause or attention. I only ask for the one thing I have been denied for too long: a life in peace. A life where humans respect me instead of hurt me. A life where I can be a bear again, not a spectacle.
This season of giving and gratitude, my wish is simple: let me go to Libearty Sanctuary. Let me walk freely, play, swim, rest, and live with dignity. Let the world finally see me not as a curiosity, not as entertainment, but as a living, sentient being who deserves safety, compassion, and freedom.
I am Baloo. I am a bear. I am strong. I am wild. And I wish to be finally free.