Bear Performs Tricks In Russian Soccer Stadium Before Match, Club Criticized [Watch]

A Russian soccer team was slammed by animal rights activists for using a grizzly bear to deliver a pre-match ball. Video of the event showed the circus bear clapping and handing the ball to the referee before a game.

The YouTube video, uploaded by the club, shows the animal looking distressed as it stood on its back legs. The bear was muzzled with a black strap over his face as he was instructed by his handler to perform tricks.

The bear clapped to fans during the Russian Professional Football League (Russia's third tier) game between Mashuk-KMV and FC Angusht Nazran. The video shows the bear was tasked with delivering the match-ball to the referee.

Football team Angusht wrote on its Facebook page that the bear, named Tim, would be used in the opening ceremony of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which is set to begin on June 14. However, FIFA reportedly denied claims about the bear's possible performance during the games.

Elisa Allen, director of PETA, U.K., and an animal welfare charity, branded the bear's performance "inhumane" and called the club "out of touch."

"In addition to being inhumane and utterly out of touch, using a bear as a captive servant to deliver a football is downright dangerous," Allen reportedly said. "The bear is the symbol of Russia, so we hope the country's people will show some compassion and national pride and stop abusing them. Common decency should compel the league to pull this stunt."

Brian da Cal, country director of Four Paws U.K., also slammed the soccer club saying: "While some supposedly find this depressing scene 'entertaining' there is nothing at all light-hearted about this kind of abuse."

"Bears are wild animals and as such have very specific and complex needs," Cal added. "Being chained up, muzzled and forced to perform unnatural acts in front of large, rowdy crowds of people causes tremendous stress and can have an untold impact on these animals, both psychological and physical."

Several social media users tweeted, calling the act "sickening" and blasting the Russian soccer club for the move.

"Performing bear at Russian football match, inhumane and inexcusable. Sickening," one user wrote. Another user wrote: "Bears belong in forests not on Russian football pitches as an entertainment object."