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THIS is the heartbreaking moment an abused bear saw sunlight for the first time in years after it was rescued by charity workers.

The emaciated bear had been locked up behind metal bars inside a hellish zoo and was unable to move.

 This is one of five bears charity workers are rescuing from the cages
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This is one of five bears charity workers are rescuing from the cages

But members from the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets removed the bars and dragged the bear out of its cell in Echmiadzin, Armenia.

There were five bears inside and the worker filming the clip explained how the charity was hoping to rescue all of them.

He said: “We are starting the rescue of one of the bears now. There are five bears here.”

He said the malnourished brown bear appeared to be “five or six years old” but later added that it was older after examining its teeth.

 The bear was so malnourished it could not move
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The bear was so malnourished it could not move
 Workers were forced to drag the bear out from the cell
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Workers were forced to drag the bear out from the cell

The worker said the bear just seemed younger because it was “small” as it had the “wrong diet”.

Once outside, workers placed a sheet over its head because it had not seen sunlight for so long.

One member of the group then then cut a bit of its hair to carry out vaccinations.

 Members of the group were able to remove the metal bars
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Members of the group were able to remove the metal bars
 This was the first time the bear was seeing sunlight in years
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This was the first time the bear was seeing sunlight in years

The person filming added: “This is the second rescue. Yesterday we rescued a tiger and it's now in a zoo.”

“Today we will rescue five bears, two will go to a zoo and three others will go to a rescue centre which is supported by International Animal Rescue.”

The video was streamed on the International Animal Rescue Facebook page and the rescue is part of their latest campaign called “The Great Bear Rescue”.

They are aiming to rescue all of the trapped bears in Armenia.



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