Synochok was born on February 25, 2010. For nearly nine years, he lived in the yard of a house in Nizhyn, Ukraine, inside a metal cage measuring barely four square meters.
A family of circus performers forced him to balance and ride a bicycle to entertain the audience. He lived on wheels, far from any forest, and bit the bars so much that he ended up with a damaged heart and destroyed teeth.
On September 17, 2018, his owners voluntarily handed him over to the White Rock Bear Shelter. He was so afraid that he would not dare leave his confinement, so the veterinary team took him out while he was asleep after dental surgery. He woke up under a tree, on grass, seeing leaves for the first time in his life. Today he is still in Ukraine, digging trenches, playing with logs, and sleeping through his first winter in true hibernation.
