Transcript for Bear Dreams (2009)

BEAR DREAMS

There was once a large brown bear

who dreamed of a different life.

A life of wandering in the forests.

Of drinking the cool, clear water

of mountain streams.

Of eating there with her partner

in the shallows where the fish

pawns to rest amongst the smooth green rocks

beneath the surface.

To make these dreams,

the bear had to close her eyes

to the bars of the iron cage

in which she lived.

To lift the thrashing, shining fish from the stream

of her dreams, she had to fold her legs

beneath her great body, so that she could forget her sharp claws

had long since been cut and stunted.

The babies of her dreams nussled up the a warm wet nose

which was not shackled with the hard iron ring she now wore night and day.

And so she spent most of her life

crawled into herself,

eyes closed,

wandering the forests of her mind.

Turkey

These bears are used in the streets of Istanbul by the Gypsies.

They dance for the tourists.

In the evening these bears are brought here

they are chained to the rocks.

There is no food at all here.

There is no water here.

These bears are suffering from the heat.

You can see them aspiring.

The bear behind me is very agitated.

Today there are 60 bears living in the bears sanctuary in Turkey.

They all paid their bitter fee for this holiday village luxury.

Some gave an arm and some an eye for their dreams.

However there are more bear cubs

suffering the same drama elsewhere in the world.

India

From the day their mothers were killed and they were poached from the wild,

they have become the slaves of their owners.

Bears are trained brutally to become dancing bears.

The iron ring in the bears nose makes them dance

or suffer the deepest pain on earth.

However the most barbaric bear practice is yet to come.

The bear baiting.

Pakistan

The wild fighting dogs attacking the bear chained to the ground.

With no claws or teath to defend itself.

In Russia death comes during sleep.

Hunters simply wake up the hibernating bears to their deaths.

Russia

The dens soon reveal the bear cubs.

They are to be taken and sold.

Most will never return to the wild.

Humans not only target the bodies of the bears

but their souls.

They are regularly used in circuses and animal parks

in the name of entertainment.

In China it is widely believed that bears entertain and heal the humans.

More than 7000 bears are trapped in bile farms.

Some eventually die a long and agonising death.

But the worst is, some live 25 years in those iron cages.

All suffer constant agony

extreme thurst and hunger.

A starving bear produces more bile to use in chinese medicine.

At one point, I must have backed too closely to one of the cages.

Because I felt something touch my shoulder.

And I turned around in shock

and a female moon bear held her paw through the bars of the cage.

But, she had her paw there

and it just seemed so natural at that time to take it.

And she didn�t hurt me at all.

And she could have done.

She just squeezed my fingers.

She really started the whole dream of the China Bear Rescue.

She started my love of this amazing species.

And she started a goal

that we are never, never going to give up, until we end bear farming in China.

All around the world there are bears

waiting for their saviours,

who will make their dreams come true.

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