site.btaNovember 17, 2000: First Bear Shelter Park in Eastern Europe Opens near Belitsa

The Bear Sanctuary near Belitsa, formerly known as the Dancing Bears Park, opened on November 17, 2000, as the first park on the Balkan Peninsula and in Eastern Europe created to provide a home for brown bears that had been mistreated and trained to dance for public entertainment. The park is located in the southern Rila Mountain, about 12 km from Belitsa. It initially covered 1.1 hectares and later expanded to 12 hectares, reaching an altitude of around 1,300 metres in a mixed forest.

The park was built with funding from Four Paws and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, as well as from the municipality of Belitsa, with support from experts specializing in brown bear behaviour and habits. The bears live in an environment that closely resembles their natural habitat. Four Paws successfully rescued all 25 registered dancing bears in Bulgaria and relocated them to the park.

The Bears Sanctuary near Belitsa is currently home to 17 bears, most of them being former dancing bears from Bulgaria. It also hosts bears from Serbia and Albania, according to the Bear Sanctuary Belitsa website.

According to the Four Paws website, dancing bears were a common sight on the streets of Eastern Europe throughout the 20th century. Typically, they were young bears captured from the wild and raised in captivity, often kept on chains and forced to perform tricks for public entertainment. This cruel practice was banned in Bulgaria in 1998.

Following is the news story by which the BTA Home News Desk announced the opening of the park on November 17, 2000:

Bear Shelter Park Inaugurated

Belitsa (Southwestern Bulgaria), November 17 (BTA) - The first bear shelter park in Eastern Europe was inaugurated in Mt Rila near Belitsa on Friday.
      At the ceremony Deputy Environment and Waters Minister Mariana Loukova said that her Ministry is about to resolve the problem of domesticated dancing bears in Bulgaria relying on the joint efforts of Bulgarian and international NGOs.
      Environmental activists are planning to provide shelter to all bears in Bulgaria originally trained to dance in the street to the amusement of passers-by.  Such facilities will help the animals readapt to their natural surroundings.
      The park is located on an area of 1 ha provided by the Belitsa Municipality.  These parts are also known as a natural habitat of wild bears.
      Three bears have been bought from their Roma masters and have been living in the park since late September.  Each animal has its own den and pool.  An information centre has been built to educate Bulgarian and foreign tourists about bears and other animals. Research activities are also planned.
      The centre has been built for three months by the Vienna-based Four Paws Foundation.  Foundation President Helmut Dunglar was among the guests at the inauguration.  The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, the other partner and the major sponsor of the 500,000 Deutsche mark project, was represented by its Director General Calmel Bocq. Members of animal welfare organizations from Germany, Switzerland, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States also attended the ceremony.
      Prof.  Yotko Kamenov of the Bulgarian chapter of Four Paws told BTA that the readaptation of the three bears is proceeding well. They are now allowed to move freely around the park. Their leash-rings were taken off their noses a couple of days before.