The last of India’s dancing sloth bears is now unemployed and will live out its days in a sanctuary set up by animal-welfare groups. The sloth bears were poached to the verge of extinction for use as performers. Owners were paid to turn the bears over to conservationists.

India outlawed sloth bear performances in 1972, but the animals still turn up along roadsides, forced to dance for money by owners who control them using a rope forced through their extremely sensitive snouts.

”You can shake hands,” said one bear owner to tourists outside a cafe, tugging the shaggy black-coated animal’s muzzle to make him wiggle clumsily to a hip-shaking Hindi song from a cassette player.

Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters