Bear-baiting

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Bear-baiting is a blood sport involving the baiting of bears.

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[edit] Bear-baiting in England

Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of 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. A number of well-trained hunting dogs would then be set on it, being replaced as they tired or were wounded or killed. For a long time, the main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden at Southwark.

Henry VIII was a fan and had a pit constructed at Whitehall. Elizabeth I was also fond of the entertainment; it featured regularly in her tours. When an attempt was made to ban baiting on Sundays, she overruled Parliament. Robert Laneham’s letter describes the spectacle presented by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester presented at Kenilworth Castle in 1575 :

Thursday, the fourteenth of July, and the sixth day of her Majesty’s coming, a great sort of bandogs [mastiff] were then tied in the outer court and thirteen bears in the inner . . .

Well, sir, the bears were brought forth into the court, the dogs set to them, to argue the points even face to face. They had learned counsel also on both parts, what may they be counted partial that are retained but to one side ? I know not. Very fierce, both one and the other, and eager in argument. If the dog in pleading would pluck the bear by the throat, the bear with traverse would claw him again by the scalp, confess and a list, but avoid it could not that was bound to the bar, and his counsel told him that it could be to him no policy in pleading.

Therefore, with fending & proving, with plucking and tugging, scratching and biting, by plain tooth and nail on one side and the other, such expense of blood and leather [skin] was there between them, as a months licking (I think) will not recover, and yet remain as far out as ever they were.

It was a sport very pleasant, of these beasts, to see the bear with his pink eyes leering after his enemies approach, the nimbleness and wayt [watch] of the dog to take his advantage, and the force and experience of the bear again to avoid the assaults. If he were bitten in one place, how he would pinch in another to get free, that if he were taken once, then what shift, with biting, with clawing, with roaring, tossing and tumbling, he would work to wind himself free from them. And when he was loose, to shake his ears twice or thrice with the blood and the slather about his physiognomy, was a matter of goodly relief.[1]

A variation involved other animals being baited, especially bulls, but also, on one curious occasion, a pony 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".[2] Attempts to end the entertainment were first made in England by the Puritans, with little effect. The deaths of a number of spectators, when a stand collapsed at the Paris Gardens on January 12, 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. [3]

By the late 17th century "the conscience of cultivated people seems to have been touched",[citation needed] but it was not until 1835 that baiting was prohibited by Parliament, Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 was soon extended across the Empire. Bear baiting's last known occurrence was in the small town of Knottingley.

Bull baiting was a contest which was similar to bear baiting in which the bear 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. [4]

[edit] Bear-baiting in America

In California of the late 19th century, grizzlies were sometimes used in pit fights, usually against Spanish bulls. The grizzlies, using their paw as a club, shattered the bull's skull or shoulder bones so easily that the betting became poor. Eventually, and at considerable cost, African lions were brought in to raise the stakes. Although lions were known for bravely charging straight in and looked good for the money, the grizzlies killed the lions almost as easily as they had killed the bulls.[5]

[edit] Other uses

The term 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. Such Bear baiting is legal in many states in the United States, with the Humane Society reporting that "Bear baiting is banned in 18 of the 27 states that allow bear hunting. It persists . . . in Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For instance, in Wisconsin in 2002, hunters killed 2,415 bears; those using bait accounted for 1,720 of the kills. In Maine, hunters killed a staggering 3,903 bears in 2001, and baiters took 3,173 of the animals."[6]

Because the practice is time consuming and disrupts a person's daily schedule, the term "bear baiting" is sometimes used in Alaska to mean "screwing off," for example if a person is late for work or misses an appointment.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ quoted in Ribton-Turner, C. J. 1887 Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging, London, 1887, p.111
  2. ^ "Bear-baiting". Encyclopaedia Britannica 3. (1910). Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. 575. Retrieved on 2007-02-15. 
  3. ^ - Field, John (1583). A Godly exhortation . . . showed at Paris Garden. Robert Waldegrave. 
  4. ^ http://elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-bear-bull-baiting.htm (visited 4th June, 2008)
  5. ^ Interspecies conflict. Which animal is the ultimate carnivore?
  6. ^ Bear baiting on federal lands Humane Society Date accessed 8 October 2007
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