With their traditional profession of bear dancing declared illegal on pressure from animal rights groups, a new future awaits bear trainers: tailoring and soap manufacture.Bear dancing has been illegal in India for eight years. The article doesn't say so directly, but it sounds like the practice has been continuing more or less unchecked despite the ban. Hopefully this new approach works - I've always been a fan of giving people incentives and options to help lead them away from things they shouldn't be doing instead of merely marginalizing or even demonizing them.
Twenty-two 'kalandars' in Madhya Pradesh, as they are known, will be trained in the two jobs, according to the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), an animal welfare group.
Categories: bear training | kalandars
