Living, Breathing Marionettes

Sixteen hundred. One thousand six hundred, prisoners, slaves, dancers. Sixteen hundred every single year are captured and stuffed in jackets after being torn away from their mother’s forever listless corpse. From here, they are sold to various industries worldwide that harvest Sloth Bears for their bile, their “fresh” dance moves, and their spirit. Seven to ten thousand are left in the wild. Do the math. At this rate, if there is currently a maximum of ten thousand Sloth Bears left in the wild, there will only be four hundred left in six years. They are the fourth most endangered bear in the world, not to mention one of the most harmless and introverted. Of the cubs who are detained, 20% will die from the shock of being separated from their mothers and 20% to 40% will die during transportation.

It mostly resembles a sewing needle and thread. Here in India, though? These giant needles aren’t threading the comfort that comes with a quilt. They’re threading absolute confinement and control. No anesthetic is used throughout the entire process. As you can imagine, the pain is excruciating.

After melting holes through her brow and snout with a hot, sharp poker, they force this needle through. The five week old Sloth Bear whimpers and lifts her paw to cover the wound. This is only a distraction for the man and he pushes it away. Remembering her childhood play fights from only days before, she gains enough confidence to stand up and bite the man restraining her. There’s no doubt in her mind that she can free herself. That she can unleash the natural beast within. Of course, if she weren’t five weeks old and if this human didn’t have a gun, or dominion, she might have had a chance. Her frustration nurtures ineffable feelings of inferiority. The volume of the man’s voice increases as he grabs her by the ears. She thrashes as her feet lose contact with the dirt. The man hits her on the nose five times with a large, wooden stick, each time grasping her ears tighter, lifting her further from the ground. Her small body dangles in his grip. Feeling as though the lesson was taught, the man drops her on the ground and continues his work.

A rope, which was attached to the end of the needle, now weaves in and out of her face. A heavy-duty muzzle is latched around her snout to keep the rope from snaring. God forbid she gets it caught on something; that would just hurt. From here, the man ties the a four foot long rope to the end of a large pole. She is now a living, breathing marionette.

Despite the strings, she should consider herself somewhat fortunate; if she were male she would have been castrated after a month in captivity. This procedure is done to ensure the safety of the person working “with” (against) the bear. The puppeteers also refrain from using antibiotics or anesthetic during the procedure. Their wallets need protection too.

A feeble grunt of reluctance goes completely unacknowledged by her “owner”. He is shrouded in culture, tradition, and a means for income. When she resists more blatantly, that’s when she gets corporal punishment. She has almost no choice but to endure the next ten years of her life dancing on the street for tourists and local bystanders. Soon, even while pedestrians take photographs, clap, and laugh, maggots will begin to forage for food in her unhealed wounds. It will remain infected for the rest of her life, causing this already sensitive area to be even more tender. Luckily, her life span has been shortened due to the conditions she is subjected to. Inevitably, 20% of her fellow cub inmates will die as a result of being handled too young. If she survives this stage of her life, she’ll only have seven to eight years left. In the wild, she would have lived up to thirty years old.

Her teeth will stop growing when she is one year of age. At this point in time, her puppeteer will, again without any anesthetic, remove all of her teeth with a metal rod. It’s easier to practice your superiority over any animal when their main defense mechanism is destroyed. From physically removing their teeth or claws to actually bludgeoning their spirit to death.

The training methods are barely dignified. In fact, they are nothing short of torture. Skinner can stuff his positive reinforcement theory right back into his box and keep it there. The training starts within two months of captivation. Some bears are forced to stand on blistering coals or a hot sheet of metal. To protect their sensitive paws they hop from one foot to the other. They dance. In other cases, the man jerks the bear using the rope and in order to avoid the pain the bear must comply. The puppeteer might also hit the bear’s hind legs when they are standing, causing them to jump from side to side. Eventually the trainer will only have to strike the ground beside each paw to achieve this effect. If she happens to defend herself, she will be beaten. To cause greater distress and pain, and thus more control, cuts are made under the bear’s thick collar.

The shoulder of the road is not an extravagant stage, but a scorching, uncomfortable realm of filth and threatening vehicles. A man from a nomadic gypsy tribe marionettes his way through life. He’s sustaining the bear dancing tradition in the name of his ancestors. This industry has been a proud part of the Qalandar culture since the thirteenth century. The locals and tourists encourage both him and the bear on with the flashes of their cameras, laughter, and hand clapping, all of which generate fear in the bear. As the audience expands, the man gives the illusion of grace. In actuality, the Sloth Bear is experiencing an unfathomable pain behind her eyes. This could be either sadness or disease. Perhaps both. The pain continues on through her snout. Because the bear’s teeth were removed, her attempts to warn people away are fruitless. When she grimaces, her jowls dangle like curtains over harmless gums. Upon doing this, the audience claps further, assuming that her desperate pleas and warnings are a part of the act.

In 1972 a Wildlife Protection Act enforced a new law: dancing bears were made illegal. Still, as of 2009, eight hundred Sloth Bears ‘performed’ on the streets of India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey, and Nepal. These bears travel across the country with their “masters” for eight to nine months, working six to ten hours a day. No break time. They are luxuries to have as entertainment for weddings, festivals, and fairs. Although occasionally the trainer may allow the bear to forage for ants and other insects on the side of the road, she is denied access to necessary medical attention and water. Qalandars prefer to seek guidance from a village elder when their bears become ill, which is common.

When her shift is over, the bear is contained in a small enclosure chained to a rock without shelter, food, or water. The boredom slowly encourages excessive irritation, and eventually, insanity.

Animal rights organizations had done nothing to end the cruelty of the industry until 2002. For thirty years, dominion had cast an impermeable shadow. Wildlife S.O.S has established a bear sanctuary where retired, injured, or rescued bears go to live for the rest of their lives. This habitat is a protected rehabilitation center and when trainers are finished with these bears they voluntarily escort them to the conservation area. It’s a paradox how these people can resort to the dancing bear industry and steal these scarce beauties from the wild, afflict them with the greatest anguish, deny them socialization, adequate food and water, and freedom and then, when they can no longer dance, grant them with everything they were once denied. Their tradition allows them to disregard the basic rights of these animals until they become useless. Unfortunately, this paradox isn’t universal for trainers and sometimes when the bear is rendered worthless, she is either disposed of or chained to a rock, kept alive with minimal food and water.

Wildlife S.O.S has rescued eight hundred bears since December 2008. The bears cannot be released back into the wild because they would not survive. WSPCA and Wildlife S.O.S have created anti-bear dancing banners which have been posted on various internet websites in the last few years. Both organizations condemn donating money to the trainers because it only contributes to the bear’s suffering. At the sanctuary, many bears arrive without eyes or limbs. While there is a certain level of peace at the sanctuary, no one can annihilate the psychological and emotional affects that a life of torture, grief, and illness have on these harmless and introverted bears.

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