In addition to the documented suffering of bile-farmed bears, brown and black bears face welfare harms from bear baiting, dancing bear practices, and tourism encounters.
Bears outside bile farming face welfare harms through multiple human-use contexts. Dancing bears suffer throughout their lives: nose ring insertion and training through pain, confinement on short chains, forced standing against natural quadruped posture, and social isolation. Bear baiting causes direct physical trauma through dog bites and psychological terror. Tourist encounter bears, though not physically harmed, are often kept in chronic stress from repeated public encounters. Wildlife SOS in India demonstrated that deeply traumatized dancing bears can recover substantially given sanctuary conditions with appropriate space, social contact, and enrichment — demonstrating the resilience of individuals when conditions improve.