This article catches my eye: the last of Bulgaria's dancing bears were ransomed today by animal rights activists. My inner animal lover and trainer have several reactions, but the humanitarian is moved to break today's self-imposed blogging ban.
The article reveals: "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."
To sieze the bears would have been just. To destroy the ex-owners' livelihood, a well-deserved side-effect ("that's what you get for expoiting and torturing animals, you scabs!") To purchase the bears and give their ex-owners an entrepreneurial hand-up: that's mercy.I proclaim the rosy prophesy that the activists' grace will change the ex-bear-owners' hearts, which in turn will multiply change for the good in their wrinkle of the world.
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