One Voice is facing the veterinarian who authorised what would become Micha’s last exploitation: hearing in Orléans on 14 March
On 7 September 2019, while Micha was struggling both to move and to breathe, a veterinarian specialising in horses provided the Poliakovs with a certificate allowing them to inflict yet another performance on him – his last one – around 350 kilometres from his prison cell. We then took this to the National Order of Veterinarians. Four years after the bear’s death, we are facing up to the professional on Thursday 14 March 2024 at 10am at the Orléans law court.
Updated 23 May
Two months after the hearing on 20 May, the Regional Council for the Order of Veterinarians gave their verdict. The veterinarian was found guilty of ethical breaches and sentenced to a one-month suspension from professional practise and a ban on holding any position within the Order for a 10-year duration. The accused has one month to file an appeal. Even though this sentencing will not bring Micha back, who died from an anaesthetic that his body, bruised and exhausted by a life of exploitation, could not cope with, it represents strong symbolic value for captive wild animals in a critical state and we hope this will allow such dramatic pitfalls to be avoided in future.
Three bears and a monkey hidden from view
After the inspection led by authorities in 2019, which concluded that Micha, disabled by his overly long claws, should no longer be moved or shown to the public, the bear and his imprisoned friends remained invisible. We therefore decided to lead an investigation in order to find them.
An investigation into the winter residence of the circus trainer couple
In the summer of the same year, we consequently went to Loir-et-Cher. We filmed Micha struggling to breathe, his gaze imploring, alongside Glasha and Bony as well as the small female monkey, Mina, who was hardly in any better state. The bear had infected wounds that were swarming with maggots that had also taken up residence in his mouth…
A few days later, after driving 250 kilometres, as if nothing had ever happened and armed with the sacrosanct veterinary certificate, the Bruneau-Poliakov couple exhibited the poor animal at a village show. Among other things, they made Micha climb onto a ball, perching on his painful extremities. AVES France documented the female trainer squeezing his paws to make him obey.
Despite maggots devouring Micha, the veterinarian actually dared to state that the “cardio-pulmonary auscultation had no irregularities”
On the veterinary certificate authorising this journey, it was mentioned that, despite weighing 160kg when he should have been 250kg, “the animal [was] in good condition”. A visit that the practitioner never would have actually carried out! Nor would he have asked the circus trainers what the document was going to be used for, a document which he admitted he did not have the expertise to issue…
Although the state of the animals and the conditions they are kept in, revealed by our footage, allowed a new urgent inspection that, alas, proved us right, Micha was condemned to the earth where he died on 12 November 2019. Bony and Glasha were saved from this hell; Mina and several rare birds succumbed to it.
After many re-launches and delays, on Thursday 14 March at 10am, we will be at the Orléans law court so that the veterinarian, who will appear before the disciplinary chamber, will be held responsible for his actions.