Last month, a circus act involving a live bear in Russia went horribly wrong, as the beast suddenly jumped up in the middle of the performance and attacked its trainer, including the children. Fortunately, neither the trainer nor the bear was seriously injured.
The incident happened on August 23 in a traveling circus next to a shopping center. In the video circulating on the Internet, the trainer Sergej Pricsinics can be seen leading the 500-pound female bear named “Donut” on a hover board when it suddenly pounced on him and pinned him to the ground. The bear then climbed on top of Prichinich and tried to bite him, at one point shaking him violently.
Fortunately, Prichinich was able to fend off the bear's attacks with his stick until another circus employee standing in front of the cage poked him with a stick until it stopped attacking. According to TMZPrichinich then carried on with the show as if nothing had happened, though he ended his performance with Donut before things could escalate any further.
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It is unclear whether the bear will continue to perform in the circus or what will happen to it after the attack.
Nikita Mihajlov, who runs the Moretti Circus, credited Prichinich with how calmly and professionally he handled the situation. “It's an animal and they can behave differently, maybe they don't like something, so they can express their emotions,” Mihailov explained. “Every coach understands that.”
Be that as it may, many circuses have stopped performing live animals due to the public outcry of animal rights activists. Even Ringling Brothers stopped using live animals when it returned last year after a six-year hiatus.