From Circus Bear to Symbol of Compassion
By Dominikos Ignatiadis
The following is a story that film director Dominikos Ignatiadis posted recently on Facebook. Gr2me is publishing this week a story about a related topic: Arcturos an organization in Western Macedonia, Greece where rescue animals find the love and care they need.
In the early 1990s, Michalis Basiakos, a resident of Thesprotia, was drinking ouzo with his friends in the square in Filiates when he saw a bear trainer dragging a baby bear by a collar around its nose. The bear was “dancing” when it heard the beat of the trainer’s drum. (doufí in greek). Michalis got upset because the little bear was in bad condition, with burns on its paws. A conversation followed, roughly this:
–Don’t you feel ashamed mistreating the animal?
–What do you care? It’s not yours.
— It’s not, but I want to buy it from you; how much do you want?
–Thirty thousand.
–Take it.
And so, it happened. The little bear, Markos, became a pet in a house in Sagiada. It wasn’t very easy: The baby bear was lively, causing destruction everywhere. But he was loved and cared for although he often had to be restricted by being chained. He could break the chains, but he would not leave the house no matter what.
When he grew up, Michalis tried to leave him in the forest. But Markos always returned, even from far away. In 1994, the people who founded ARCTUROS asked Michalis to give Markos to the shelter.
“I hope it is not for some kind of advertising purposes Mihalis said. Not at all. ARCTUROS was founded precisely for bears like Markos, who was “a dancer,” to stop this barbaric practice.
The bear was taken to the shelter, released very quickly, and lived in its natural environment. In fact, it quickly built a den and hibernated, something that bears raised in captivity don’t do easily. A year after Markos’s release, he was brought to a veterinary clinic for a checkup. Michalis wanted to visit him, but he was told that “now the animal has returned to its wild instincts it would be dangerous,”. Mihalis did not listen. On his own responsibility, he entered Markos’s cage and Markos hugged him.
The bear died in the early 2020s at the age of 23, with the name he was given by the shelter. They called him Duke.
