A video of a bear performing in front of fans before a Russian football match has been condemned by animal rights organisations as 'inhumane and dangerous'.
In the footage, a circus bear named 'Tim' is lead into the stadium by his trainer before the game between Mashuk-KMV and Angusht in Pyatigorsk. Onlookers can be heard clapping and cheering on the animal, whose mouth had been clamped shut, before he took a ball and handed it to the referee.
"In addition to being inhumane and utterly out of touch, using a bear as a captive servant to deliver a football is downright dangerous," Elisa Allen, director of animal welfare charity Peta, told the BBC.
Bears are not willing performers, but are trained from a young age through beatings, electric shocks, cigarette burns and the withholding of food, Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Angusht posted on social media that 'Tim' would perform at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Moscow, however officials confirmed to Standard Sport that no animals will be used as part of the ceremonies.
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