The grainy video shows dogs, three at a time, let loose to bay at a tame black bear chained to a stake

Several of the dogs appear to bite the bear. The bear gives one dog a powerful swat to the head.

It’s a practice known as bear baying or bear baiting, and South Carolina is the only state where it’s allowed.

The Humane Society of the United States on Monday called the practice barbaric and asked state officials to outlaw it.

The Humane Society paid videographers to attend major bear baying events with hidden cameras to record the action in the past two years. Snippets of the videos were released Monday at a Humane Society news conference in Columbia.

“It’s inexcusable to stake a defanged, declawed, defenseless bear and offer the poor creature up as a living pinata for dogs to attack,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society. “The people of South Carolina will be outraged to know that there are people still staging these spectacles in the state.”

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