User:KayleeT1127/Bear-baiting

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Bear-baiting is a blood sport in which a chained bear and one or more dogs are forced to fight one another. It may also involve pitting a bear against another animal. Until the 19th century, it was commonly performed in Great Britain, Sweden, India, Pakistan, and Mexico among others. Today, bear-baiting most commonly refers to the practice of using edible bait to lure bears into an area for hunting. Bear-baiting in all forms has been subject to controversy and debate among animal rights advocates for centuries.

North America
As recently as 2010, illegal bear-baiting was practiced publicly in South Carolina. All such public exhibitions have been shut down as of 2013.

In the 19th century and during Mexican and earlier Spanish colonial rule, fights had been organized in California, which had a subspecies of brown bear of its own. In a case of the bear winning, the bear would use its teeth to catch a bull between its horns, on its nose, which would allow the bear to move its head enough to twist its neck, or bite a part of the bull's body, like the tongue, or use its paws to catch or harm the bull, like in squeezing its neck, or catching its tongue:


 * According to Cahuilla people, who claimed to be able to communicate with bears, one of their men attended a fight at a pueblo in Los Angeles. During the first part of the fight, the bull kept knocking down the bear, before the man whispered to the bear that it had to defend itself, or else it would be killed. Upon that, the bear fought back, and broke the bull's neck.

Mexico
Storer and Trevis (1955) mentioned the account of Albert Evans, who said that he saw an uncommon incident at a Plaza de Toros in Veracruz, Mexico, in January 1870. A bear called 'Samson' dug a hole so large that it could hold an elephant, before using its large paws to carry and throw an opposing bull headfirst into the hole, paw-swipe its side till its breath appeared to have been half-knocked out of its body, and then use one paw to hold the bull, and the other to bury it alive.

Alaska
Bear-baiting in Alaska is currently legal under the 2020 hunting reform. Bait, often human or dog food, is left at bait stations which must be registered with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. These bait stations are then monitored by hunters using tree stands and game cameras. Bear-baiting was prohibited in 2015 by the National Park Service. It was once again legalized in 2020 due to conflicts between the National Park Service hunting regulations and the state hunting regulations. As of January 9, 2023, the National Park Service has proposed to reinstate the 2015 regulations due to safety concerns and public backlash with 99% public opposition to the 2020 repeal.