A wonderful piece of news for the New Year – the last dancing bear in India has been rescued.

When I was researching Bearkeeper, I went to Agra to see the work of Wildlife SOS. It was a fascinating and inspiring experience.

To mark the rescue of the final bear, the BBC has made a documentary about the bears and the work of a British charity, International Animal Rescue, and their Indian partners, Wildlife SOS, who have built sanctuaries to house the freed bears.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pwryf

Be warned: this documentary contains some horrible footage of bears being abused by their “owners”.

If you don’t want to watch the footage, you can find out more about Wildlife SOS and their British partner, International Animal Rescue, by following these links:

www.internationalanimalrescue.org
www.wildlifesos.org