KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wildlife Department does not support a local running event dubbed the Sun Bear Run, scheduled to take place on Feb 28.
Its director William Baya said as far as the department was concerned, the event was not a charity run.
“We are in no way supporting or co-organising these so-called wildlife themed runs organised by a local company here.
“There are also no funds being channelled to the department for conservation purposes from previous similar running events supposedly for elephants and rhinoceros,” he said in a statement.
William said company organising these runs was free to use the names of such wildlife species as long as they did not give a misleading impression to the public.
“It has come to my attention that many of those who registered for these runs had thought that a large portion of the fees is actually being channelled back into conservation, which is not the case."
Yesterday, Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) chief executive officer Wong Siew Te said the runs neither benefit the centre nor the animal.
BSBCC condemned parties who use the names of wildlife species for their own benefit and advised the public to be wary of events that exploit the names of endangered animals.
Scheduled to be held at Tanjung Aru, the 9km Sun Bear Run tickets are priced between RM51.25 and RM92.25, and are sold online.