The Associated Press reports that Austria-based Four Paws Foundation recently paid several Bulgarian families small grants (the AP doesn’t report how small) in order to buy the freedom of 13 brown bears used in dancing bear street acts.
The bears will be relocated to a 12-hectare sanctuary on Mount Rila. The sanctuary cost $2.4 million and was created in collaboration with the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.
Source:
Animal rights activists buy freedom bears. Associated Press, June 7, 2004.