All market data delayed 20 minutes. According to the Daily Mail, the penal colony in Kostanay houses 730 “dangerous criminals” and one brown bear named Ekaterina who was imprisoned and sentenced to life for a crime she committed in 2004. Like a lot of her fellow inmates, the brown bear had a troubled life. She woke up about a month ago from her annual hibernation. The brown bear (pictured), named Katya, is the only female in the jail in Kazakhstan which holds 730 'dangerous' criminals, and the sole inmate boasting a swimming pool in her 'cell' The ageing bear spends the long hours jumping up and down in her cage and trying to crack the rusty metal railings with her chipped and yellowed teeth.Dozens of other retired circus animals also live in the smelly cages placed inside the bus and a minivan parked nearby.Some occasionally are taken out to accompany photographers to downtown St. Petersburg to have their pictures taken with children and tourists. “I don’t remember anything else from that moment.”That same year, Ekaterina allegedly mauled a 28-year-old named Viktor O. who was inebriated when he tried to shake her hand.

But for inmates here, a female brown bear named Ekaterina, or Katya, imprisoned alongside them has made their sentences bearable. Thus, she was imprisoned in the UK-161/2 penal colony for her animalistic behavior.The penal colony is situated 435 miles Northwest of Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-sultan, formerly Astana. “She has already become a symbol of our colony, we have gotten used to her and we will not give her to anyone.”Indeed, prisoners are quite fond of the brown-furred quadruped. I'm teddy-bear Artist from Russia. Katya the bear moves uneasily in her cage placed inside a bus that stands at a parking lot in St.Petersburg Katya lives in a small cage - much too small for her size - in a rusty bus which is parked in an industrial zone in St. Petersburg. I am from Novosibirsk (Russia) .I like to create teddy bears and teddy bear friends. He reportedly suffered “serious injuries” and “traumatic shock”.“Everything happened suddenly… I threw food to him, and he, through the cage, grabbed my leg. Katya also performed in two films released in the 1980s.Since her retirement in 2009, Katya and the painted bus on which she once toured with the circus have not left a parking lot near a busy highway. As such, hopefully, she can find a manageable middle-ground in this strange, unnatural environment she’s been forced to endure.
"They can't move normally and start going crazy," Zoya Afanasyeva of the Vita animal rights group said as she stood by Katya's sweltering bus on a hot summer day. "They can't move normally and start going crazy," Zoya Afanasyeva of the Vita animal rights group said as she stood by Katya's sweltering bus on a hot summer day. Birds with atrophied muscles live next to cats that don't meow and stare straight ahead with pus-covered eyes.Circus director Viktor Savrasov said the animals are cared for and Katya's fate would have been worse if her trainer had agreed to have the bear put to sleep.

The wild animal was found guilty of attacking two people at a campsite 15 years ago and has been a convicted inmate ever since. Katya was abandoned by circus performers visiting Kostanay when she was still just a cub, and then locked in a cage near a popular camping site, as a tourist attraction.
Katya is a 36-year-old bear who was a longtime star of the Big St. Petersburg State Circus, and in 1980, she performed in the opening ceremonies of Olympics in Russia. Others never get washed or examined by veterinarians, animal rights activists say. I create the bears from materials professionally for 3 years. In this photo made Thursday, July 14, 2011, Katya, a 36-year-old bear, moves uneasily in her cage placed inside a bus that stands at a parking lot in St.Petersburg, Russia. “Other prisoners visit her. Now she feels good, and runs, jumps.”Ekaterina has even become a symbol of the prison with a statue of a bear erected in her honor outside the facility’s walls. Gordon took on the role of mummy bear deep in the forests of Russia at a sanctuary run by the Pazhetnov family for next week’s BBC documentary Grizzly Bear Cubs And Me. Her presence doesn’t really cost the prison anything, as her diet consists mainly of leftovers from the human prisoners, plus she only eats seven months a year, spending the other five (November to April) hibernating in her lair.“We have no plans to relocate Katya,” Azamat Gabpasov, deputy chief for educational work at UK-161/2, told If you liked this story, like & follow us on Facebook for more.14-Year-Old Forced to Give Away His Belongings After Taking Family Car on JoyrideWidower Has Ultra-Realistic, Life-Size Sculpture of His Late Wife Installed at Family Home

The past 15 years behind bars have apparently made the bear extremely docile. Of course, communicating with an animal brightens my time here, makes it not so painful.” While it does seem as though Ekaterina is being housed in zoo-like conditions rather than an actual prison, there’s arguably no distinction for an animal like Ekaterina. Katya, a 36-year-old brown bear, is the only prisoner at the UK-161/2 penal colony in Kostanay, Kazakhstan, to be serving a life sentence. In this photo made Thursday, July 14, 2011, Katya, a 36-year-old bear, moves uneasily in her cage placed inside a bus that stands at a parking lot in St.Petersburg, Russia. I will be very happy if my life will bear it for you! The Russian bear became a symbol of Russia through a strange set of circumstances, and the whole story goes to show that fake news has been around for hundreds of years. Big chocolate bear 11" (28 cm) $165.00 USD : Ironically, even killers imprisoned here have sentences of no longer than 25 years.So what could a bear do to end up in prison? "Whatever happened, she did not leave her," he said of retired trainer Natalya Arkhipova, who still visits Katya to feed her.Animal rights activists have long urged Russia's government to strengthen animal protection laws. While authorities at the penal colony are eager to allow her to receive conjugal visits, as her fellow inmates are — this has been prohibited. The prospect of spending the rest of your natural life in prison in Kazakhstan is certainly a grim one, especially when said prison has been described as a “strict regime” penal colony.