Disturbing footage of a bear playing a vuvuzela in a jeep emerges from Russia

A bear has been recorded in Russia riding around in a jeep and blowing a vuvuzela horn.

The animal is accompanied by three men in the vehicle and was seen in Moscow shortly after Russia's 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the World Cup.

Crowds gathered round to video and photograph the bear, who is also seen giving a salute, which has been suggested by some to be the inverted Nazi-salute the quenelle, a gesture associated with antisemitism.

Videos of the bear, which has been confirmed to be real, have been circulating on social media since Thursday evening by sports journalists currently based in Russia.

Reaction to the footage has been largely condemned on social media, with people horrified by the abuse that the bear has more than likely been subject to.

This isn't the first time that a bear has been mishandled in Russian football. In April, a bear was brought on to the pitch of a Russian game where the animal handed a ball to the referee.

The animal rights organisation PETA condemned the video at the time. In a statement to Newsweek, PETA director Elisa Allen said:

In addition to being inhumane and utterly out of touch, using a bear as a captive servant to deliver a football is downright dangerous unless, as is often the case, the animal’s teeth and claws have been cruelly removed.

Bears are not willing performers, so Russian circuses and other lousy acts take them from their mothers as babies and then ‘train’ them using beatings, electric shocks, cigarette burns, and food deprivation to make them perform belittling, stupid tricks like this, which make no sense to them.

Elsewhere in Russia, dogs have been subject to irresponsible breeding to have them resemble bears. A polar bear was also found in western Russia last year, approximately 700km from its home in the Arctic Polar.

HT Yahoo

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