Sept. 6, 2005 — Bears that suffered abuse when made to dance for their gypsy masters received expert treatment over the weekend for their worst health problem — tooth infection — at Europe's biggest rehabilitation park for bears.

"Tooth infections that can also cause blood poisoning if not treated on time are the worst problem of all the 18 bears in Belitsa," Amir Khalil, manager of Bulgaria's Dancing Bears Park, told AFP.

"Some of the bears have hardly any teeth left at all," he told AFP as he finished examining Charlie, a male bear still under anesthesia.

The 150-kilogram (330-pound) animal was next seen by dentist Danilo Russo, who put in several fillings as the rest of the team of three Bulgarian and six Italian vets closely monitored the bear's cardio-respiratory functions.

Charlie was one of nine bears that received dental treatment from the animal rescue team, who said they were shocked at evidence of so much suffering.

"All the 18 bears in the park were captured as cubs and brought up as roaming dance performers by their gypsy owners, who taught them to 'dance' by putting their greased paws on a hot iron plate and playing music on a rebec," said the park's executive director Tsvetelina Ivanova.

"Their teeth were filed or taken out, and their noses and upper lips were pierced with an iron ring to fix the chain they were led on," she said, adding that the animals had "been beaten (and) made drunk on beer and vodka."

The bears were chronically underfed, and the tiny portions of sweatbread, sugar and yogurt they lived on had disastrous effects on their teeth, Ilieva said.

Her Austria-based organization Vier Pfoten (Four Paws), together with French animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot, founded the park in Belitsa in 2000 and vowed to shelter all 25 of Bulgaria's officially registered dancing bears.

The park plans to welcome its next four-legged resident on Sept. 23.

"We do our best for them, and I believe they feel better after it. If I was one of them I would think myself in paradise after waking up with no toothache and being again able to nibble anything," Khalil told AFP.

"The other nine bears that received treatment last year had all started eating well, and managed to accumulate the necessary fat to go to winter sleep for the first time since they were brought here," Ilieva added.

But as Charlie was being let off the operating table he found Khalil's "paradise" quite shaky at first, stumbling around in a circle as the anesthesia wore off, feverishly licking his nose and looking around for something to try his new teeth on.

The 13 female and five male bears living in the park are fed tomatoes, apples, pears, carrots or other fruit together with some bread.

They are also encouraged to search for food hidden around the park, which comprises 12 hectares (30 acres) of forests and mountains, with 12 caves, seven artificial ponds and a number of dens.

Some 1,000 bears inhabit the Bulgarian Rila and Pirin mountains around the Dancing Bears Park, located some 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Sofia, the Bulgarian capital.

But the park bears cannot be let out of their artificial habitat because their natural instincts have long been suppressed by captivity and abuse, experts say.

"Some would be completely helpless if let out in the wild," said one park worker, noting that one animal was blinded due to excessive sugar intake and that another had an incurable blood condition.

"There was also one 34-year-old she bear we knew would not make it for long even under our care. Her owner had cut her neck with a knife and left an infected wound on her belly by stabbing it with an iron rod. She died in November 2003," the worker said.