Photo Gallery Bulgaria's Last Dancing Bears Go Free
Misho, a 19-year-old male bear, shown here with his owners, a Roma family in the village of Getsovo, Bulgaria. On Friday, an animal rights group gave the animals their freedom by giving small grants to the people in the eastern village of Getsovo who made a living from the bears.
The Four Paws Foundation, based in Austria, hopes that Misho (shown here), Svetla and Mima will have more comfortable lives with the 20 other brown bears at the 30-acre sanctuary on Bulgaria's Mount Rila.
The illegal technique for training dancing bears starts when young bear cubs are captured, then pierced through the nose or lip. In this photo, Misho's nose ring is visible.
Owners then insert a chain through the ring to control the cub, who is trained to "dance" by being forced to walk on hot coals or metal to a drumbeat, which the bear comes to associate with pain. As the bear jumps up in anticipation of pain, it simulates dancing.
Though training bears to dance has been a tradition for centuries, it has been outlawed due to its inherent brutality. Here, a member of the Stanev family comforts Misho before his departure.
Dimitar Stanev hugs his eight-year-old female bear Mima and kisses her goodbye before she is taken to "Dancing Bears Park" in Belitsa, southern Bulgaria.
Misho's owner says goodbye before the bear is transported to his new home.
