A dancing circus bear was captured on film Tuesday attacking its ringmaster during a performance in the Chinese city of Huzhou, news.com.au reported.
Xiong Xiong, the Asiatic black bear, managed to pin down a performer to the ground, and it took six circus staff members to stop the bear and return him to his cage, the Australian news outlet reported. (RELATED: Bear Infiltrates Colorado Mountain Resort, Attacks Security Guard In Kitchen, Officials Say)
The wild footage starts in the middle of a performance when the bear appears to suddenly and forcefully latch onto one of the performers. A struggle ensued, and the bear can be seen pinning the performer to the ground as another tries to pull the bear away.
The video was shared on Douyin, a Chinese social media platform, and received a number of comments by users, according to news.com.au. A lot of the commentary was in sympathy toward the bear.
“This little bear is so disturbed. I can only imagine how much abuse it has suffered,” one user wrote, according to the outlet.
“Cancel animal performances, they are so sad to watch!” another user said.
The Asiatic black bears are listed as ‘”vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
“Circuses are famous across the globe and a lot of Asian countries exploit animals in circuses and other types of industries … Circuses that involve animals are not educational and not aimed at the conservation of animals. Rather, it is one of the types of cruelty to wild animals. It does not demonstrate an appreciation of animals. Also, circuses do not conserve wild animals, and those animals who are used in captive breeding programs mostly are not released into the wild,” the Institute of Animal Law of Asia wrote back in 2021.