The circus holding Maya is suing us!
One Voice leads a nonviolent fight to defend animal rights and respect all life forms. The organization operates independently and is thus free to speak and act freely.
The circus and its lawyer want to forbid us to speak or to act for Maya, their wish: to silence us. We will not leave Maya to her sad fate as a captive elephant. Nor will we abandon the fight for circuses without animals.
As far as the circus and its lawyer are concerned Maya is “in perfect health”. They demand that we remove the petition signed by more than 104,000 people to get #JusticeforMaya, as well as all articles, tweets and Facebook posts from our sites and pages. We could no longer use Maya’s photo, flyers, or panels talking about her or her photo. They refuse that we conduct demonstrations or gatherings for her.
In summary, the circus demands that we stop purely and simply to defend the animals, Maya in particular, and that we apologize to them publicly in the newspapers and on our website!
They want to be able to continue exploiting Maya, until death ensues and if possible far from sight!
Their choice of words would be very amusing if they did not concern Maya who suffers terribly. We create for them “an abnormal disturbance of enjoyment”, that is to say, they exploit the image and life itself of their animals for their own gain, whatever their state and whatever the external signs of their anguish is, and if we try to defend them, Stop Now!
However, Maya has been performing for more than 40 years, shuffling from the arena to the trailer truck, suffering the bull hooks and the ankle chains. Maya is in pain.
They literally earn their living from this, and they dare to say that we are conducting a “smear campaign” against them, while they deny the most basic needs for this elephant!? She needs to end up in a sanctuary, and no, it’s not a “fanciful request” that we would not do lightly.
Her posture is distorted, her body is emaciated. Yes, Maya is dying before our eyes and yes we do defend her and we will continue to defend her and all the other captive animals of the entertainment industry, against her human owners who exhibit her and keep her in unworthy living conditions.
In the fight of One Voice for Maya, allies are with us: scientists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, media personalities, but above all: YOU!
We will go right to the end, the circus may reduce its animals to silence but their defenders will not let go!