For the longest time, I thought this spell was "Soothe the Ferocious Beast" ReAn10, until a player pointed it out.
Then I realised there was a problem, presumably with the spell name. For a bear is Size +2, and the spell has no Size modifier, meaning it can only affect up to Size +1.
Actually, are European bears Size +2? Surely they are not that bigger than a pony?
Eurasian Brown Bears have a length of up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft), but those would be in the farthest end of the scale
You're hitting a soft spor of mine there.
Look at "Panic of the Elephant's Mouse", which in the descriptive text says it can in fact not affect elephants due to their size.
My oppinion here is that some Animal spells are physical, resemble Corpus spells, and require size limits. And some are mental, resembling Mentem spells, and are not affected by size since minds are immaterial. Sadly, the core book's Animal spells don't all conform to this theory. There was a long discussion about it, within a few years ago. No conclusion though.
BTW I always remember that spell as "Soothe the Ferocious Boar" and that is clearly not right either.
Boar here as well! First time I noticed it is actually Bear!
It works equally well for both, and the spell isn't creature specific, so it relly doesn't matter.
Other permutations are possible, for a 4 letter word starting with "B" and ending in "r": Beer, Boer?
Sorry...
Soothe the ferocious Boer is the Mandela Spell?
Boor and Bohr are options too?
Yesterday I sat browsing through the 2nd ed book, the first version of the game I ever owned and read.
That spell was actually called "Soothe the Ferocious Boar" back then. Somehow down the line, the animal changed. I haven't checked 3rd or 4th ed, nor 1st ed.
1st edition is Boar as well
3rd and 4th editions have a bear. But I am pretty sure originally it must have been a mare (you know, the Gift spooking your mount and stuff)! 
Or maybe a hare?
Boar might have been the correct name. The size fits for one.