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Bear-baiting in the 18th century, engraving, 1796.

Bear-baiting is a blood sport involving the baiting of bears.

Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of bears were maintained for baiting. In its best-known form, arenas for this purpose were called bear-gardens, consisting of a circular high fenced area, the "pit", and raised seating for spectators. A post would be set in the ground towards the edge of the pit and the bear chained to it, either by the leg or neck. A number of well-trained hunting dogs would then be set on it, being replaced as they tired or were wounded or killed. For a long time, the main bear-garden in London was the Paris Garden at Southwark.

Henry VIII was a fan and had a pit constructed at Whitehall. Elizabeth I was also fond of the entertainment; it featured regularly in her tours. In 1575, a baiting display for her had thirteen bears, and when an attempt was made to ban baiting on Sundays, she overruled Parliament.

A variation involved other animals being baited, especially bulls, but also, on one curious occasion, a pony with an ape tied to its back was baited: a spectator described that "...with the screaming of the ape, beholding the curs hanging from the ears and neck of the pony, is very laughable".^{[citation needed]}

Attempts to end the entertainment were first made in England by the Puritans, with little effect. The deaths of a number of spectators, when a stand collapsed at the Paris Gardens on January 12, 1583 was viewed by early Puritans as a sign of God's anger, though not primarily because of the cruelty but because the bear-baiting was taking place on a Sunday. ^[1]

By the late 17th century "the conscience of cultivated people seems to have been touched",^{[citation needed]} but it was not until 1835 that baiting was prohibited by Parliament, Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 was soon extended across the Empire. Bear baiting's last known occurrence was in the small town of Knottingley.

In California of the late 19th century, grizzlies were sometimes used in pit fights, usually against spanish bulls. The grizzlies, using their paw as a club, shattered the bull's skull or shoulder bones so easily that the betting became poor. Eventually, and at considerable cost, African lions were brought in to raise the stakes. Although lions were known for bravely charging straight in and looked good for the money, the grizzlies killed the lions almost as easily as they'd killed the bulls.^[2]

The term may be used for the hunting practice of luring a bear with bait to an arranged killing spot. The hunter places an amount of food, such as raw meat or sweets, every day at a given spot until the hunter notices the food is being taken each day, accompanied by bear tracks. He then chooses a day to await the bear, killing it when it arrives to feed.

Bear baiting is legal in many states in the United States. Hunters put bait in baiting stations, then climb up onto a stand that can be as close as fifteen feet to the bait. They wait for a bear to show up, then shoot the bear. This is standard practice in trophy hunting in the United States.

"Bear baiting is banned in 18 of the 27 states that allow bear hunting. It persists . . . in Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For instance, in Wisconsin in 2002, hunters killed 2,415 bears; those using bait accounted for 1,720 of the kills. In Maine, hunters killed a staggering 3,903 bears in 2001, and baiters took 3,173 of the animals."^[3]

Because the practice is time consuming and disrupts a person's daily schedule, the term "bear baiting" is sometimes used in Alaska to mean "screwing off," for example if a person is late for work or misses an appointment.

• Baiting (animals)
• Beargarden
• Bull-baiting
• Category:Dog fighting breeds
• Cockfight
• Congleton, an English town notorious for its bear-baiting.
• Dog fighting
• Hope Theatre
• List of dog fighting breeds

• PBS' Shakespeare on Bear baiting
• Chain Bear, a character paranoid of bear baiters.

Sir Cary Reynolds, a Puritan MP said in the House of Commons in 1601: "In the Year 1583. the House of Paris Garden fell down, as they were at the Bear Baiting, Jan. 23. on a Sunday, and Four Hundred Persons sore Crushed; yet by God's Mercy, only Eight were Slain outright."

From: 'Proceedings in the Commons, 1601: December 1st - 5th', Historical Collections:: or, An exact Account of the Proceedings of the Four last Parliaments of Q. Elizabeth (1680), pp. 267-88. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43558. Date accessed: 24 February 2007.