One Voice files a complaint for two snakes exhibited by a dancer from one party to the next
The “jungle” parties come one after the other, and each one looks dismally similar. On Saturday June 15, the Le Maho nightclub in Ancenis-Saint-Géréon, Loire-Atlantique, allowed a trainer to display two snakes on a dance floor, under blinding spotlights. This was a totally illegal act, but she is no stranger to it. We have lodged a complaint against her and her company, as well as against two establishments that have recently used her services. And we demand that the animals be seized!
An animal who seemed “distraught at times”: that’s what this whistle-blower was surprised to discover when she went to the “jungle” party organized by Le Maho nightclub last month. There, between two fire breather acts, she saw a dancer strutting before the crowd with a snake. In fact, there wasn’t one, but two. And when she wasn’t presenting them in turn coiled around her or resting on her shoulders, she was even brandishing them above her head while spinning around. This was enough to completely disorientate animals already exposed to the lights and vibrations emitted by a drunken crowd.
An illegal exploitation that never stopped
These “shows”, in addition to being cruel, have been totally illegal since the November 2021 anti-maltreatment law prohibits the presentation of animals in nightclubs. A text that doesn’t seem to concern the owner of the two reptiles: on her Instagram account, we can see that since 2015, she has never stopped exploiting animals in festive environments that are anything but natural for them.
And nightclub managers are making the most of it. Last February, it was the New Vegas Club in La-Croix-en-Touraine that welcomed her. And it makes no secret of it: on its Facebook page, photos show that the two snakes were twiddled all evening long. Carried by party-goers or placed on their shoulders, they were touched by no less than thirty people. We can only imagine the stress they must have felt in such an overexcited atmosphere, where an accident could have happened at any moment…
In November 2023, we had already lodged a complaint for a python and a cockatoo who had been photographed and handled by night owls at a discotheque in Perpignan. This time again, we’re defending animals treated as commonplace objects of entertainment. We are filing a complaint against the owner of the snakes, her company and the establishments Le Maho and The New Vegas Show. And we demand that the animals be seized and entrusted to us, so that they can finally be placed in an environment that respects their needs.
