Lives of the circus bears who perform to raise money for the Shriners is revealed

dailymail.co.uk

Muzzled and on a short leash the large brown bear grimaces as it is made to mount a bicycle and ride in a circle to the delight of screaming children and their parents.

If the animal puts a foot wrong a trainer is on hand with a long stick to prod the bear back in line.

Next the majestic 400lb beast, dressed in a gaudy red and gold sequined waistcoat, is coaxed to balance uncomfortably on a barrel and shuffle forward, before being led up on to its front paws and made to walk gingerly down a ladder from a raised platform.

The unnatural scenes are more reminiscent of a show at a medieval fair than of modern America.

But these bears were most recently seen performing tricks at the Shrine Circus in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The disturbing footage, captured in a joint DailyMail.com and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) investigation, shows the Castle Hall Performing Bears company, a traveling troupe of bears which regularly entertains people across the mid-West.

The James Cristy Cole Circus which is behind the event, produces the show for Shriners International, which is using the cruel spectacle of performing bears to raise money for children's hospitals.

Animal rights groups have greeted the bear show with horror and believe that if the sick children benefiting from the circus act knew of the cruelty behind it, they would be horrified.

The performance - part of a $17-a-ticket event which also includes performing elephants and tigers - opens with two brown bears being driven into the circus ring in the back of a novelty car alongside handlers James Hall, 65, and his wife Tepa, 55.

The footage was captured when it was held at the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, earlier in March.

As well as riding on a bike, balancing on a barrel and doing handstands on a ladder, the performing bears also shoot a basketball, balance on giant beach balls, sit in arm chairs, tip toe across a balancing beam and clap and dance - all human like tricks designed to wow the crowds.

The hundreds of onlookers in Lincoln smiled, laughed and cheered as the bears followed the commands of their trainers – eventually showing their approval with synchronized clapping at the end of the performance.

But away from the smiles lies the sinister reality of a miserable life on the road for the performing animals who are kept in small cages for most of the day.

According to an animal behavior and bear husbandry expert, interviewed by DailyMail.com, circus life is the worst possible existence for these proud animals.

Bear expert Jason Pratte, who reviewed the circus footage, said: 'These bear shows don't want people to see how the bears are kept.

'At best the bears' housing is small, cages that have been opened up, they've usually got a hard floor, they have no exposure to natural substrates, bears love the earth, you know digging, rooting through stuff, bears are highly interactive with their environment and having a sterile, traveling environment, the bears cannot express their normal range of genetic behaviors.'

Pratte says the tricks the bears perform, like walking on their front paws or even sitting on chairs, will cause long-term trauma to the animals' nerves, spines, and muscles.

And he says being jerked around by a lead or a chain can cause 'acute and chronic' physical injuries to the ears and the neck.

'Those kinds of constant jerks are going to have an impact on the cervical vertebrae, the nervous system, the ligaments, you're going to see ongoing pain, possible arthritis issues, tension and stress damage, all of that kind of stuff are direct physical effects of being forced into unnatural positions,' he explains.