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The cruel “dancing bear” industry has a long history that, thankfully, is coming to an end. It’s not very often that you see an animal rescue project have 100% success, especially over a short period of time. More often, rescued animals are replaced by new animals in a vicious cycle of suffering as advocates chip away at public awareness to reduce the demand – and thus the financial incentive – to exploit animals in the first place. It’s vital work, but it can be a long, slow march toward a kinder future.
That’s not the story of India’s “dancing bears” though. Thanks in very large part to the dedicated work of Wildlife SOS, the practice became obsolete less than 15 years after the organization’s co-founders began exploring an approach to rescue bears from their lives of suffering.
The History and Training of “Dancing Bears” in India
For more than 400 years, the Kalandars, a nomadic tribe in India, used “dancing bears,” which were believed to be a good luck charm, to entertain the Mughal emperors. As the kingdoms disappeared, the Kalandars transitioned to an audience of villagers and tourists, who paid to watch these “performances.”
But like nearly all wild animal performances, this “dancing” was the product of abusive training and a complete lack of regard for the wellbeing of the animals involved.
Many bears used in the industry were poached from the wild as cubs. Their mothers were often killed in the process. Some traumatized cubs died of shock, while others died from neglect or dehydration. Those who survived were sold to trainers, and were forced to undergo painful physical mutilations and brutal training methods.
The bears’ teeth were often knocked out or broken off, and their nails cut short or removed. Despite being very painful, these practices were carried out without any form of anesthetic. Fed a poor diet, many bears suffered fur loss, cataracts, or blindness from malnutrition.
The first step of training was to pierce the bear’s snout or lip with a red-hot poker or piece of metal and lace a thick, coarse rope through the fresh wound. Pulling on this rope was, of course, painful, and it was used to force the bears into unnatural positions, like standing on their back legs for extended periods of time. Beatings with sticks and other physical punishment were also used to coerce bears to comply with their trainer’s demands.
One method of “dance training” involves greasing the bears’ paws and forcing them to stand on hot plates while music plays. The suffering animals hop from foot to foot to avoid the burning pain and, eventually, the sound of the music alone is enough to trigger this “dancing” action.
Years of being abused, malnourished, and forced to behave in unnatural and physically harmful ways took a significant toll on the bears’ health. The close contact with humans made them susceptible to tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. The damage caused to their snout and lip made it painful to eat and sometimes led to infections. Together it resulted in a lifetime of suffering and an early death.
The Bears
Sloth bears are one of eight bear species in the world, and were the primary victims of this industry (though some Asiatic black bears were also used). Weighing in at 200-250 pounds, on average, sloth bears are one of the smaller bear species. They have a long, shaggy black coat with a whitish or yellowish crescent on their chest. They also have four-inch long curved claws used for digging out termites and ants. In the wild, they can live more than 20 years, but in captivity a dancing bear rarely lives past the age of 7 or 8.
Today, 90% of the global population of sloth bears is found in India, but their numbers are dropping and the IUCN Red List considers them Vulnerable. Currently only 6,000-11,000 exist in the wild, a 40-50% decrease from numbers just a few decades ago. This is mainly due to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, poaching, and increasing human-bear conflict.
The Wildlife SOS Campaign
Although India made the practice of dancing bears illegal in 1972, Wildlife SOS found that there were still more than 1,200 scattered throughout the country in 2002.
Because “dancing bears” were exploited by severely economically disadvantaged people with few alternatives for income, Wildlife SOS recognized that successfully ending this practice would require a solution to this financial challenge.
In 1996, Kartick Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani, the co-founders of Wildlife SOS, began visiting and spending time within the Kalandar community to understand why such a tradition was part of their culture. Once trust was established and local input was received, work began to transition the community away from the practice of owning and exploiting bears for profit.
In partnership with organizations including the Wildlife Trust of India, World Animal Protection, International Animal Rescue, Free the Bears Fund, and One Voice France, Wildlife SOS launched a holistic campaign that provided alternative job training, empowered women, and educated children.
Communities received equipment for new, more financially profitable occupations, like welding and soap making. Women received skills training and access to market their goods, and children received school supplies that would allow them to gain a formal education.
In exchange, the Kalandars handed over their bears. Rani, the first bear rescued, arrived at Wildlife SOS’s Agra sanctuary in 2002. In total, nearly 630 bears have been rescued from this brutal trade, with Raju, the very last known “dancing bear” in India, rescued in 2009.
All photos courtesy of Wildlife SOS
Current Status of the Dancing Bear Industry
Although the “dancing bear” industry has died out across most of Europe and Asia, reports of this abuse were documented in Bulgaria and Spain in 2007, and in Serbia in 2012. While the status of bears in Pakistan is unclear, it’s likely that they are still being exploited both there and in Siberia, where documented evidence has been collected as recently as 2019.
Since the rescue of the last dancing bear in India, investigations have shown that some bears have been smuggled across the border into Nepal by their Kalandar handlers and continue to suffer cruelty and abuse.
How to Support the Bears and Wildlife SOS
Because the hundreds of rescued bears are unable to be released back into the wild, they are living out their lives in one of the three Wildlife SOS sanctuaries. The majority are housed in Agra, with others located at a sanctuary in Bannerghatta (near Bangalore) or a third center in Bhopal (central India).
The bears now receive a healthy diet and have access to plenty of space to climb, relax, and play with their friends. With forests, dens, and swimming pools to enjoy, the bears are able to live peacefully, far from the horrors of their earlier lives.
Although the “dancing bear” industry has been effectively eradicated in India, Wildlife SOS continues to rescue bears who were the victims of poaching, poorly managed zoos, and human-bear conflict situations.
Like any animal rescue, getting these bears into a sanctuary was not the end of the story. There remain years of ongoing costs to care for them and provide the life they deserve.
If you’d like to show your support for Wildlife SOS, their incredible work for wildlife, and the bears themselves, here are a few ways you can help:
🐻 Visit - If you’re in India, stop by one of the sanctuaries and see the bears for yourself.
🐻 Volunteer - With a bit of extra time, you can get involved in the sanctuaries’ daily work, including construction, food prep, and creating enrichment. Note that there is no direct physical contact with the bears.
🐻 Donate - Donations support Wildlife SOS’s ongoing work, including providing care for the rescued bears.
🐻 Sponsor a bear - Your monthly gift provides ongoing support to this work, and you’ll receive periodic updates about the animal you’ve sponsored.
🐻 Wildlife SOS’s Kalandar program - Help ensure lasting protection against a return to bear exploitation with a gift to support education, vocational training, housing, and seed funding for business start-ups.
We have chosen to only include photos of post-rescue bears in this blog. If you would find visuals of the abuse endured by these animals in the “dancing” world helpful in understanding this issue, please visit this page by Wildlife SOS, which includes both before and after images.
If you’d like to see these bears in person, we can help you incorporate a sanctuary visit into a custom India itinerary. Schedule your free 15-minute consultation today!
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