Lifestyles of the rich and famous… groan… It seems like the more money celebrities have, the more they don’t know what to do with it. Or, they end up doing things that they really shouldn’t.

Soccer star Kirill Kombarov, a twenty-seven year old player for the team FC Torpedo Moscow, has fired up animal activists because of what he did for his son’s recent birthday party. Kombarov hired a trained, muzzled bear from a circus so that it could come to his two-year-old son’s party at home. This bear is quite popular with circus crowds and has even starred in films.

As if it wasn’t hurtful or stressful enough for the bear to have to be transported from the Stepan Nikulin Circus to fulfil this ludicrous birthday wish, the bear underwent humiliation and trauma at the event. There were photographs that emerged, showing the two-year-old birthday boy riding on the bear, who remained muzzled the entire time. Surrounding them were Kombarov as well as other party guests, smiling happily in the camera. In another snap, that can be seen on the Daily Mail website, the bear is made to pose for a photograph, still wearing his muzzle - and a tie around his neck. T

his is a shocking story and should not be allowed to have happened. It’s bad enough that the poor bear has to remain in captivity in the circus. But to be degraded in such a despicable way is unfair and disgusting. It’s an arrogant display of how human beings choose to exert their power over animals for their own twisted enjoyment.

People have taken to social media to express how Kombarov is not being a good example for the fair and kind treatment of animals, as well as to state that bears should not be treated as house pets.

*Image courtesy Flickr Creative Commons