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Bulgaria's last 3 dancing bears freed

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Bulgaria's last 3 dancing bears freed

By VESELIN TOSHKOV, Associated Press Writer 55 minutes ago

 

After a lifetime of brutal treatment, including walking on burning embers,

Bulgaria's last three dancing bears will get to rest their paws at a mountain

sanctuary, in an apparent end to the centuries-old performance tradition in the

Balkans.

 

Activists on Friday bought the freedom of Mima, 8, Misho, 19, and Svetla, 17.

 

Bulgaria is believed to have been the last country in the Balkans where dancing

bears still performed, even though the practice was outlawed in 1993, when there

were 20 to 30 such bears in the country.

 

The three bears will join another 20 brown bears on Mount Rila at a 30-acre

sanctuary for former dancing bears 110 miles south of Sofia.

 

" Our aim is to make their life more bearable in their remaining years, " Ioana

Tomescu of the Austria-based Four Paws Foundation, which created the sanctuary,

told The Associated Press.

 

Throughout the Balkans, families — mostly among the Gypsy or Roma community —

have long earned a living through performing bears. But the techniques to train

them led the practice to be banned, and animal rights activists have moved to

find the bears new homes.

 

The bears are captured while still young. Their nose or lips are pierced, and a

metal ring attached to a chain is inserted; the pain ensures instant submission.

 

The cubs are forced to walk on burning embers or a hot sheet of metal, and hop

from one hind leg to the other in order to escape the burning, while their

trainer beats a drum. The process is repeated until the bear learns to connect

the drum to the pain.

 

Because dancing bears are illegal, authorities could simply have taken Mima,

Misho and Svetla away from their owners in the eastern village of Getsovo.

 

Instead, the Four Paws Foundation decided to pay for their freedom by giving

their owners small grants to set up new businesses. It did not reveal how much

was paid. In return, the owners signed declarations pledging never to take up

the bear dancing business again.

 

 

2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information

contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or

redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

 

 

 

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