Editing Sloth bear (section)

=== Tameability ===
[[File:Pushkar-bear and handler.jpg|thumb|A bear and its handler in [[Pushkar]]]]
Officers in [[British India]] often kept sloth bears as [[pet]]s.<ref name="india"/> The wife of Kenneth Anderson kept an orphaned sloth bear cub from Mysore, which she named "Bruno". The bear was fed all sorts of things and was very affectionate toward people. It was even taught numerous tricks, such as cradling a woodblock like a baby or pointing a bamboo stick like a gun.[https://ncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/iebe109.pdf]

[[Dancing bear]]s were historically a popular entertainment in India, dating back to the 13th century and the pre-[[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] era. The [[Qalandar (clan)|Kalandar]]s, who practised the tradition of capturing sloth bears for entertainment purposes, were often employed in the courts of Mughal emperors to stage spectacles involving trained bears.<ref name="india"/> They were once common in the towns of [[Calcutta]], where they often disturbed the horses of British officers.<ref name="india"/>

Despite a ban on the practice that was enacted in 1972, as many as 800 dancing bears were in the streets of India during the latter part of the 20th century, particularly on the highway between Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. Sloth bear cubs, which were usually purchased at the age of six months from traders and poachers, were trained to dance and follow commands through coercive stimuli and starvation. Males were castrated at an early age, and their teeth were knocked out at the age of one year to prevent them from seriously injuring their handlers. The bears were typically fitted with a nose ring attached to a four-foot leash. Some were found to be [[Blindness|blind]] from [[malnutrition]].<ref name="dance">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090302084102/http://www.wildlifesos.org/IBR/Dbears/bdancebody.htm Dancing Bears in India]. wildlifesos.org</ref>

In 2009, following a seven-year campaign by a coalition of Indian and international animal welfare groups, the last Kalandar dancing bear was set free.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8421867.stm |title=Last Indian dancing bear set free |work=BBC News |date=18 December 2009 |access-date=18 April 2011 |archive-date=5 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105114846/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8421867.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The effort to end the practice involved helping the bear handlers find jobs and education, which enabled them to reduce their reliance on dancing-bear income.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ted.com/talks/kartick_satyanarayan_how_we_rescued_the_dancing_bears.html |title=Katrick Satyanarayan: How we rescued the "dancing" bears |publisher=Ted.com |access-date=18 April 2011 |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716202408/http://www.ted.com/talks/kartick_satyanarayan_how_we_rescued_the_dancing_bears.html |url-status=live }}</ref>