Orphaned bear cubs that sparked controversy released to wild

Two orphaned black bears that were spareddeath when a conservation officer refusedorders to euthanize themhave beenreleased into the wilderness on Vancouver Island.

The bearshadbeen living at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre on Vancouver Island for nearly a yearsince their mother was killed by a conservation officer last summer.

The pair wasreleased last Friday, June 24.

"They're healthy and they stand a good chance out in the wild, whichthey would not have had they not come here," saidJulieMackey, the centre'swildlife manager.

On Monday, six other bears that were at the wildlife centre were also released,saidMackey.

• Orphaned black bear cubs saved by conservation officer to be released.

The bears, now one-year-old, werefitted with GPS collars to track their movements, heart beats, temperatures and hibernation routines in the wild.

Mackey said the collars will give wildlife officials a chance to learn"some of the activities that they (the bears)get into, where they travel, that type of thing."

Theyare the first bears at the shelter to get the collars as part of an agreement with the Environment Ministry, which wants to track how they fare in the wild.

Mother killed,cubs saved

The bear cubs' mother was killed by a conservation officer after it repeatedly raided a freezer full of meat and salmon outside a Port Hardy home.

But conservation officer Bryce Casavant refused to kill the two cubs despite orders from superiors. Instead, Casavanttook them to a veterinary hospital, believing they could be rehabilitated.

The cubs were later transferred to a recovery centre run by the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association in Errington, also on Vancouver Island.

Casavant was later suspended for refusing to kill the cubs. That suspension sparked outrage on social media, especially after the story was retweeted by British comedian Ricky Gervais.

Tens of thousands of people signed an online petition calling for the conservation officer to be reinstated. Despite the outcry, he was eventually transferred out of the Conservation Officer Service.

The eightbears were releasedin remote locations nearLake Cowichan,SookeandPort Hardy.

With files from CHEK and Canadian Press