The cruel history of dancing and performing bears in Europe and Asia
In the Middle Ages, dancing or performing bears were a common form of entertainment in Europe and Asia.
They often featured in travelling circuses or individual performances, with the majority of trainers being Romany people from Eastern Europe.
Performing bears remained a common sight in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia well into the twentieth century, despite incremental efforts to introduce bans.
The bears were captured as cubs from the Himalayas, the Middle East and the jungles of the Indian sub-continent then trained to dance and perform tricks.
Often the cub's mother would be killed in the process of capturing the young bear. This practice continues in Siberia to this day.
A bear entertains British soldiers in Southern Russia during the country's 1917-1922 civil war
The process of preparing the bear for training often involved inflicting great pain on the animal through removing its teeth, cutting its claws and inserting a metal ring into its nose.
During training, a rope attached to the nose ring would be yanked painfully and sometimes sticks and whips were also used to coax the bear into performing.
To create the illusion of dancing, the trainer would play music while the bear stood on a hot metal platform lifting one paw after another to avoid being burned. Subsequently, whenever the bear heard the same music, it would begin to 'dance'.
A number of organisations are working to have performances featuring bears banned and to place the animals in sanctuaries, however the practice continues in some countries and even once rescued, bears often suffer from mental and physical ailments that result in an early death.
Sources: Bearconservation.org.uk, Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
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