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Bear-baiting was a historical blood sport in which a chained bear and one or more dogs were forced to
fight Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...
one another. It also sometimes involved pitting a bear against another animal. Until the 19th century, it was commonly performed in Great Britain, Sweden, India, Pakistan, and Mexico among others. Today, "bear-baiting" most commonly refers to the practice of using edible bait to lure bears into an area for hunting. Bear-baiting in all forms has been subject to controversy and debate among animal rights advocates for centuries.


History


Europe


Great Britain

Bear-baiting was very popular from the 12th until the 19th century. From the 16th century, many bears were maintained for baiting. In its best-known form, arenas for this purpose were called bear-gardens, consisting of a circular high fenced area, the " pit", and raised seating for spectators. A post would be set in the ground towards the edge of the pit and the bear chained to it, either by the leg or neck. Several well-trained fighting or baiting dogs, usually Old English Bulldogs, would then be set on it, being replaced as they got tired or were wounded or killed. In some cases the bear was let loose, allowing it to chase after animals or people. For a long time, the main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden, a section of the Bankside lying to the west of The Clink, at
Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
.
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
was a fan and had a bear pit constructed at his
Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...
.
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
was also fond of the entertainment; it featured regularly in her tours. When an attempt was made to ban bear-baiting on Sundays, she overruled
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. Robert Laneham's letter describes the spectacle presented by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth Castle in 1575: Variations involved other animals being baited, especially bulls. Bull-baiting was a contest which was similar to bear baiting in which the bull was chained to a stake by one hind leg or by the neck and worried by dogs. The whipping of a blinded bear was another variation of bear-baiting. Also, on one curious occasion, a
pony A pony is a type of small horse, usually measured under a specified height at maturity. Ponies often have thicker coats, manes and tails, compared to larger horses, and proportionally shorter legs, wider barrels, heavier , thicker necks and s ...
with an ape tied to its back was baited; a spectator described that "... with the screaming of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable". Attempts to end the entertainment were first made in the
Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the late 9th century, when it was unified from various Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland to f ...
by the
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
s, with little effect. The deaths of several spectators, when a stand collapsed at the Paris Gardens on 12 January 1583, was viewed by early Puritans as a sign of God's anger, though not primarily because of the cruelty but because the bear-baiting was taking place on a Sunday. One bear named Sackerson was written into the
Shakespearean comedy In the First Folio, the Play (theatre), plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, Shakespearean history, histories, and Shakespearean tragedy, tragedies; and modern scholars recognise a fourth category, ''romance' ...
''
The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...
''. Baiting was banned by the
Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
during the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...
and the resultant Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which ended in 1660. By the late 17th century, "the conscience of cultivated people seems to have been touched" and, by the 18th century, bear-baiting had largely died out in Britain; the cost of importing bears for blood sports having become prohibitively high. It was not until 1835 that baiting was prohibited by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
in the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835, introduced as a bill by the member of parliament for South Durham, Joseph Pease, who was a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
and a member of the committee of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is a common name for non-profit animal welfare organizations around the world. The oldest SPCA organization is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was founded ...
. The Act, which also banned (but failed to eradicate) dog fighting and cockfighting, was soon extended across the
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
. At that time, the "bull stone" of Leslie, Fife was first recorded in the '' New Statistical Account of Scotland'' as an item which had already fallen out of use. It is a large stone to which bulls and occasionally bears were tied before being baited.


Sweden

In the 18th century, King
Frederick I of Sweden Frederick I (; 28 April 1676 – 5 April 1751) was List of Swedish monarchs, King of Sweden from 1720 until his death, having been prince consort of Sweden from 1718 to 1720, and was also Landgrave of Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Kassel fr ...
was said to have been presented with a "very large lion" from the Barbary people, which then killed a bear after the king pitted them together in a fight.


Asia


India

In India, towards the end of the 19th century, Gaekwad Sayajirao III of Baroda arranged a fight between a Barbary lion and Bengal tiger, to determine whether the lion or tiger should be called the "King of the Cat Family." The victor then had to face a Sierran
Grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
weighing over , after the Gaekwad was told that the cat was not the "King of
Carnivora Carnivora ( ) is an order of placental mammals specialized primarily in eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species. Carnivor ...
e."


Pakistan

Bear baiting has been occurring in the
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
and
Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...
provinces of Pakistan, since 2004. The events are organized predominantly by local gangsters who own the fighting dogs. During the event the bear will be tethered to a rope long in the centre of an arena to prevent escape. Bears' canine teeth are often removed and their claws may be filed down giving them less advantage over the dogs. Each fight lasts around three minutes. If the dogs pull the bear to the ground they are said to win the fight. Bears usually have to undergo several fights during each day's event. Bears are illegally sourced by
poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
. Asian black bears and
brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...
s are known to be poached in Pakistan and used in bear baiting.Four bears saved in local network success
(9 July 2007), WSPA website. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
Asiatic black bears are listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. The capture of bear cubs is prohibited across three provinces of Pakistan by: the North West Frontier Province Conservation and Management Act (1975); the Punjab Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act (1974); and the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance (1972). Bear baiting was banned in Pakistan by the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1890). Pakistan's wildlife authorities are working with animal welfare groups to eradicate the events, with some success. The Bioresource Research Centre, a Pakistani wildlife group working to end bear-baiting, uses
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic teachings to encourage mosques in areas where baiting occurs, to add an anti-cruelty message to their Friday ''
Khuṭbah ''Khutbah'' (, ''khuṭbah''; , ''khotbeh''; ) serves as the primary formal occasion for public sermon, preaching in the Islamic tradition. Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic traditio ...
'' (, Sermon). Depending on the context, though the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
does not directly forbid the baiting of
animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...
, there are restrictions on how people can treat them, and it is outlawed in certain
hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
s. Al-Adab al-Mufrad, Book 1,
Hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
1232
Sahih al-Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...
, Volumes 1 – 9
Sahih Muslim () is the second hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj () in the format, the work is valued by Sunnis, alongside , as the most important source for Islamic religion after the Q ...
, Volumes 1 – 4
Kund Park Sanctuary was opened in 2000 by
World Animal Protection World Animal Protection, formerly The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), is an international non-profit animal welfare organization that has been in operation since 1981. The charity's mission is to create a better world for an ...
to provide a home for bears confiscated by the wildlife authorities and NGOs working to eradicate bear baiting in Pakistan. However, during the
2010 Pakistan floods The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab (Pakistani province), Punjab and, Balochistan, Pakistan, Balochistan regions of Pakistan, which affected the Indus Riv ...
Kund Park was destroyed and all but three of the 23 bears there died. The survivors were moved to a newly constructed sanctuary in Balkasar Bear Sanctuary.


North America


United States

As recently as 2010, illegal bear-baiting was practiced publicly in
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
. All such public exhibitions have been shut down as of 2013. In the 19th century and during Mexican and earlier Spanish colonial rule, fights had been organized in California, which had a subspecies of brown bear of its own. In a case of the bear winning, the bear would use its teeth to catch a bull between its horns, on its nose, which would allow the bear to move its head enough to twist its neck, or bite a part of the bull's body, like the
tongue The tongue is a Muscle, muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for chewing and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper s ...
, or use its paws to catch or harm the bull, like in squeezing its neck, or catching its tongue: * According to Cahuilla people, who claimed to be able to communicate with bears, one of their men attended a fight at a
pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
in Los Angeles. During the first part of the fight, the bull kept knocking down the bear, before the man whispered to the bear that it had to defend itself, or else it would be killed. Upon that, the bear fought back, and broke the bull's neck.


Mexico

Storer and Trevis (1955) mentioned the account of Albert Evans, who said that he saw an uncommon incident at a Plaza de Toros in
Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...
, Mexico, in January 1870. A bear called 'Samson' dug a hole so large that it could hold an elephant, before using its large paws to carry and throw an opposing bull headfirst into the hole, paw-swipe its side till its breath appeared to have been half-knocked out of its body, and then use one paw to hold the bull, and the other to bury it alive.


Hunting bears with bait

The term "bear baiting" may be also used for the hunting practice of luring a bear with bait to an arranged killing spot. The hunter places an amount of food, such as raw meat or sweets, every day at a given spot until the hunter notices the food is being taken each day, accompanied by bear tracks. He then chooses a day to await the bear, killing it when it arrives to feed. In 2007, such bear baiting was legal in many states in the United States, with the Humane Society of the United States reporting that:


Alaska

Bear-baiting in Alaska is currently legal under the 2020 hunting reform. Bait, often human or dog food, is left at bait stations which must be registered with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. These bait stations are then monitored by hunters using tree stands and game cameras. Bear-baiting was prohibited in 2015 by the National Park Service. It was once again legalized in 2020 due to conflicts between the National Park Service hunting regulations and the state hunting regulations. As of January 9, 2023, the National Park Service has proposed to reinstate the 2015 regulations due to safety concerns and public backlash with 99% public opposition to the 2020 repeal.''Alaska; hunting and trapping in national preserves''. (2023, January 9). Federal Register. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/09/2023-00142/alaska-hunting-and-trapping-in-national-preserves


In literature


See also

* Bear hunting * Beargarden * Bear-leader * Badger-baiting * Bull-baiting * Baiting (blood sport) (includes dog-baiting) * :Dog fighting breeds * Cockfight *
Congleton Congleton is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is on the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 28,497 and the built-up area ha ...
, an English town once notorious for bear-baiting and cockfighting * Hope Theatre * Lion-baiting * List of dog fighting breeds *
Speciesism Speciesism () is a term used in philosophy regarding the treatment of individuals of different species. The term has several different definitions. Some specifically define speciesism as discrimination or unjustified treatment based on an indivi ...


References


Further reading

* Davies, Callan (2023). " The Place of Bearwards in Early Modern England". ''The Historical Journal.''


External links


Ending bear baiting
World Animal Protection World Animal Protection, formerly The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), is an international non-profit animal welfare organization that has been in operation since 1981. The charity's mission is to create a better world for an ...

Bearbaiting
Pakistan Bioresource Research Centre (archived 2018)

(bear feeding), Humane Society of the United States (archived 2015) *The Bankside and the Bear Garden in
Shakespearean Playhouses
', by Joseph Quincy Adams Jr. from
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
. (Chapter VII)


Videos

*, Humane Society of the United States * {{Mammals in culture Baiting (blood sport) Bears Bears and humans Cruelty to animals