Discursive Essay On Bear Baiting

In a typical bear fighting event there are twenty five fights. In each fight, no matter which of the four provinces the event takes place, the rules are the same. A bear is tethered to a central pole by a rope. The length of the rope can vary from two to five metres. Two bull terriers are set onto the tethered bear. The dogs try to make the bear roll over. To make the bear roll over, the dogs target the muzzle, tongue, chin and ears. These parts of the body are the most sensitive. If a dog does manage to attach his body to one of the sensitive parts, he can then proceed to pull the bear down and force it to roll over. The fight ends when either the bear or one of the dogs falls over. The animal that falls to the ground first, loses. At any time in the fight, the dogs' owners may pull the bear out of the fight, if the owner thinks the dog has suffered enough. If this occurs the bear wins the fight. However the bear must continue with the match until the end.

WSPA is the Ð''World Society for the Protection of Animals'. WSPA is deeply involved in motivating governments all over Europe to put more money into helping to stop Bear Baiting.

If the Pakistani authorities set up a permanent officer in their Wildlife Department, WSPA will set up a facility to house confiscated bears for life. Some people argue that this is still far from ideal for the bears to be living in captivity and certainly not an enjoyable experience for the bears. WSPA say this is ridiculous and that Ð''all bears that are confiscated will have a much more pleasurable life than if they were bear baiting.' Living in a WSPA captivity camp would be similar to living in the wild. All bears would have access to a large open outside area during the day and would sleep inside.

Once the Pakistani authorities teach legal, moral and ethnic arguments on bear baiting and make it part of the school curriculum, WSPA will produce public awareness posters and other materials such as leaflets. Many Pakistanis believe that educating children about bear baiting is unfair. They argue children are to young to learn about bear baiting and their decisions will be made for them. If children do not get taught both sides of bear baiting at a relatively young age, when are they going to learn? The children are not going to have their decisions made for them, they are simply being informed on bear baiting. It would not be necessary to teach at girl's schools, only at boy's schools as the audience of a bear baiting event is solely male.

If the Pakistani government set up a bear registration scheme to monitor and stop further depletion of wild bears, then WSPA will employ assistance to the Pakistani government.

WSPA have already started to educate in the Pakistani low income kalander (gypsy) communities about the law of bear baiting. They have begun to re-train many kalanders and find new jobs which are legal and outside the paths of bear baiting and dancing. WSPA promise to continue their work if the Pakistani government help and fund WSPA. WSPA would also like the Pakistani government to try and raise the living standards of gypsies and permanently rehome some. It is argued my many that few rural gypsy communities will be targeted. It will also cost the authorities over two million pounds to rehome and re-train some gypsies. Many tax paying Pakistani citizens argue that this money could be spent elsewhere. Some say that many gypsies choose to travel and live on the move and will not wish to be rehomed to a stable environment. Vast amounts of people say that the adult gypsies should not be taught or educated because they say that they will never change their ways. Many Pakistani citizens who pay taxes are unemployed. The unemployed of Pakistan are furious that gypsies are being considered for jobs, whilst they are not.

There are many people involved in bear baiting. Some have jobs, which would disappear if the government decided to pay more attention to the illegal goings on of bear baiting. These are the people in bear baiting. The graziers who capture the bears from the wild, the traders who purchase the bear from the grazier and sells the bear onto the kalander, the kalander buys the bear, extracts the cub's incisors and canine teeth and pierces the cubs muzzle with a large ring. The kalander then teaches the cub to dance by being beaten and manipulated by a tug of the nose ring. Once the cub has been trained to dance, some kalanders are encouraged to use their bear in bear baiting. The landowners provide the site for the bear baiting event and some fund kalanders, the helpers are usually tenants,