The Bear Baiting of Pakistan

By Claudette Vaughan

Fakhar -i - Abbas is 32 years old and has just completed a PhD in wildlife from the University of the Punjab.

He started working for bear protection in 1997. To date he has worked on various wildlife issues like ungulates, freshwater turtles, crocodiles, musk deer and the birds of Pakistan. He has several research papers published and has written one book titled "Animal's Rights in Islam" while 2 further books on wildlife are near completion.

Here is the Abolitionist-Online's Interview with Fakhar - i- Abbas.

Abolitionist: Please provide us with an overview of what bear baiting is all about.

Fakhar -i- Abbas: Bear baiting is basically a phenomenon by which evil natured landlords practice their brutality and cruelty on a tethered defenceless bear forced to face specially trained aggressive dogs. A bear faces several pairs of dogs for 3-5 minutes each interval lasting a few minutes. The bears teeth have been taken out and their sharp claws plucked out so that's why they suffer such serious injuries during each bearbaiting bout.

Abolitionist: Bear baiting is illegal under the Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890.  How much still goes on in Pakistan today?

Fakhar: When we first started back in 1994 the bear baiting figures were incredibly high. A recent estimate shows that more than 80% of these bear baiting fights have been stopped and only 10-20% of bear baiting is still being attempted in Pakistan. WSPA identified 55 cases and out of that 43 fights were stopped from continuing. In Pakistan each law enforcing department have been assigned specific laws to enforce and the department that was responsible for the enforcement was abolished in the early nineties. Since then government has assigned a wildlife department for the eradication of bearbaiting. Now new efforts are being made to improve the different provincial wildlife acts as the bears come under the legislation for protected species. Most of the raids are being made under that clause of the law.

Abolitionist: WSPA has called upon the Pakistani government and President Musharraf to eradicate the barbaric and archaic practice of bear baiting.  You have achieved some success in what must be a difficult subject - can you talk about that please?

Fakhar: President Musharraf was the first head of the government who realised WSPA's concern over this cruelty and he issued a directive to all relevant authorities to stop bearbaiting from within the country and so he confiscated the bears involved in bear baiting. Since than a significant number of events have declined in number.

Abolitionist: The Kalandar gypsies are the people who are organising the bear baiting events .  In India Free the Bear Fund and Maneka Gandhi have successfully negotiated with the Kalandar tribe to voluntarily hand over "their" bears and then they are provided with a new way to earn a living with financial support.  Why hasn't WSPA done this in Pakistan?

Fakhar: WSPA is also funding an Indian NGO ' Wildlife Trust of India' to conduct a comprehensive Kalandar rehabilitation package in India. Several Kalandar communities have already embarked on successful new careers and are no longer involved in bear baiting. WSPA is monitoring the success of this project closely with a view to potentially initiating a similar project in Pakistan.

Abolitionist: In the near future?

Fakhar: Primarily we are estimating the numbers of the bears and their possible future. We are also learning the attitude of what exactly it is that the gypsies want. This is all in the initial stage but it's true to say we are just observing at this stage to make the project as successful as possible.

Abolitionist: How many bears have been rescued so far and how does WSPA rehabilitate them?

Fakhar: WSPA have rescued around 10 bears after some most risky raids with wildlife officials. As far as rehabilitation goes, we have a bear sanctuary in Pakistan. We are trying to keep the bears as close as possible to the conditions, enrichment and food that they would receive living in the wild.

Abolitionist: What happens to the dogs? Has WSPA rescued any dogs?

Fakhar: The dogs are owned by very powerful landlords in Pakistan. We haven't started any confiscation of the dogs because we have basically been concentrating on the bears. Dogs also receive injuries but their physical needs are looked after very well by these landlords. The gypsies however make the bear's claws blunt and they remove the bears incisors and canine teeth as they can't pluck the molars and pre molars. These teeth are crushed by a hammer which is again a very painful and unnecessary procedure. One can only imagine how little these bears can defend themselves against the dogs.

Abolitionist: Where and how are the dogs trained to fight like that?

Fakhar: Dogs receive their training through specialised trainers within the traditional place of the landlords. Normally each trainer is assigned a couple of dogs and they look after the dogs for 24 hours and train them. A landlord normally own several dogs trained for different reasons. E.g., for dogfights, bearbaitings, races and other fights.

Abolitionist: Is bear baiting a fight to the death?

Fakhar: Not exactly but the injuries received during bearbaiting may lead to death as the gypsies do not believe in medication and they normally try to treat their bears with more painful methods. In 1998 we estimated more than 300 baiting bears died due to some unknown disease. There is some evidence that shows that rabies got transferred from the dogs to the bears which led to the death of several of the dogs and of the bears.

Abolitionist: Who goes to see it?

Fakhar: The people living in villages who don't have any awareness and have no access to reasonable entertainment.

Abolitionist: How many animals are involved?

Fakhar: There are around in total 600 bears with the gypsies in Pakistan and out of that 50-100 bears are currently trained for these baiting bouts. These figures are just predicted from a current survey in which we are tracking the total number of bears and the bears potentially trained for baiting. A final number of bears can be stated after the completion of this survey.

Abolitionist: Has anyone ever before been prosecuted for bear baiting ?

Fakhar: Yes there have been some cases but they are still in the courts as the court process is very slow in Pakistan. Usually it takes several years for a final decision by the court to be made. For example three bears were confiscated from different locations and their case has been in the court for the last 4 years. Unfortunately the bears are still in very tiny cages awaiting their fate.

Abolitionist:  What sort of injuries are sustained by the bears during the fight?

Fakhar: As bears have a thick fur coat their very serious injuries are hard to be seen straight after a fight. Normally in the course of one fight a bear receives several 6-13 inches long cuts and/or scratches and about an inch or more deep wounds then they normally develop secondary infections on top of that because of inappropriate treatments.

Abolitionist: How much money is made from it?

Fakhar: Before WSPA became involved money was earned from this "entertainment". When we called for the practice to be abolished and that started gaining the support of Pakistan's authorities the ringleaders couldn't carry out any announced event. Since we have been awaking the people they have stopped charging the tickets and only special guests are invited to watch a fight.

Abolitionist: What educational programs are in place from WSPA?

Fakhar: WSPA is trying to find every possible way to deliver an awareness about this cruel sport. We are visiting schools in the areas where the bearbaiting is still in progress. We are contacting the religious clerics and conveying to them the teachings of Islam stating against these cruelties and we are also delivering this message on several national or regional events by distributing awareness material.

Abolitionist: How many bears are at your sanctuary at this current time?

Fakhar: We have 6 bears at our sanctuary confiscated from various events.

Abolitionist: How can we help eradicate bear baiting in Pakistan?

Fakhar: I think we all should give strength to WSPA through every possible means so it could gain maximum support by the authorities to root out this evil practice for ever .

Fakhar -i- Abbas can be contacted:

House 34 Bazar Road
Sector G-6/4 Islamabad
Post box 1555 GPO
Islamabad Pakistan

Phone +92(0)3009552253 +92(0)51 2278044
Fax. +92(0)51 2275899