Remember the “ Dancing Bears”?
A law was passed in 2002 outlawing the barbaric treatment to these poor animals and it was only in 2007 when Bulgaria joined the EU that it was stopped…

Luckily people now do protest against all these terrible crimes towards animals!

Re:
"What happens to the dogs is NOT their fault but the fault of barbaric uncivilised Bulgarian animals"

Correction
Not Bulgarian animals, but PAGANS ANIMALS

"What happens to the dogs is NOT their fault but the fault of barbaric uncivilised PAGANS ANIMALS"

“Respect Bulgaria” just 1%++

It's a shame the bear dancing was stopped when we joined the EU. The bear jockey job would have been a good gig for Hercules: little intelligence needed, a good dose of sadism required, lack of decency and moral turpitude. Goodness gracious Hercules, you really would have been a perfect bear jockey!

I think this story got into the press on what they call a "slow news day" -- nothing much of interest going on, so let's put in an obscure story and see what happens.

I watched the video and, apart from the possibility of injury to the dogs by the rope positioned around their chests (which didn't seem to happen), I would hardly call the ritual "barbaric". Silly, yes. But compare it with, say, bull-fighting in Spain, fox-hunting in Britain or cock-fighting and dog-fighting in almost any country and it certainly isn't barbaric. They even had people there with a big net to catch the dogs when they landed in the river. None of the dogs in the video seemed to be injured -- they all scampered out, shook themselves and trotted off. Possibly the most barbaric aspect was the rough way the men were handling the dogs before they were dunked in the river.

I'm afraid this is the sort of non-story that lazy journalists put in when they are prompted by eco-loon animal-rights activists, who should do a bit of serious thinking before they put the "rights" of animals above those of the millions of poor people in the world.

But compare it with, say, bull-fighting in Spain, fox-hunting in Britain or cock-fighting and dog-fighting

Err! Fox hunting and dog fighting is banned in the UK and Bull fighting will soon be banned in Spain
Think before your fat fingers hit the keyboard.
STOP making the schoolboy excuse that nearly all Bulgarians use
That is to point the finger at someone else that does something wrong
Simply accept the fact that it is wrong and do something about it