Is there a way to keep XML::Parser from converting numeric entities into UTF8?

Or is there some other parser that will let me do this?

use strict;
use XML::Parser;

use vars qw($parser);

sub handle_start {
    my $self = shift;
    my $x = shift;
    print "<" . $x . '>' ;
}

sub handle_end {
    my $self = shift;
    my $x = shift;
    print "</" . $x . '>' ;
}

sub handle_char {
    my $self = shift;
    my $x = shift;
    print $x;
}

$parser = XML::Parser->new(
    Handlers => {
        Start => \&handle_start,
        End   => \&handle_end,
        Char  => \&handle_char
    }
);

$parser->parse(<<XML);
<start>&#8211;</start>
XML
[download]

I would like this program to output

<start>&#8211;</start>
[download]

not

<start>–</start>
[download]