Pouring public money into illegal circuses. How far will the State go to protect these offenders?
In May 2025, the Ministry for Ecological Transition unveiled a financial support plan for travelling circuses. One Voice immediately denounced the abandonment of animals, left in the hands of their torturers with no hope of joining a sanctuary. In recent weeks,
this project took further shape when the Service and Payment Agency presented the financial aid planned for circuses. One Voice has contacted this State operator to request that establishments condemned by the courts or not complying with the law should not receive any public funding.
Animals being illegally detained or subjected to despicable trafficking, illicit breeding and births, mistreatment, fraud… Many circuses flout the law in order to make ever more profit from those they drag around from town to town. And now, at the request of the State, taxpayers are expected to pay these same criminals handsomely… so that they may continue to abuse animals in sedentary establishments?
Endless violence
While we have always fought against the endless suffering of captive animals, the legalnsystem is also beginning to recognise the facts. In November 2022, trainer Mario Masson was found guilty, among other offences, of mistreating ten tigers locked up 24 hours a day in acage truck. We had rescued them from this abominable fate two years earlier. And he is far from being the only circus owner from whose clutches we have rescued mistreated animals. Steve Gougeon was convicted of mistreating the lion Jon and the lionesses Céleste, Patty, Hannah and Marli and for keeping lions without identifying them. A few weeks before the court is decision, the director of the Cirque de Paris had left two llamas,two camels, two horses and two cows abandoned in a field in the middle of winter for nearly three months…
Whether for mistreatment or illegal exploitation, the circus operators of the Cirque William Zavatta, the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe and the Cirque de Rome were also found guilty bythe courts.
Illegal births
One might think that the trainers would stop there in their indecency. This is not the case. Although reproduction has been banned in travelling establishments since 1 December 2023, many have largely ignored the 2021 law against animal abuse.
Tiger cubs continued to be born at Cirque Boletti, Cirque Europa, Cirque Franco-Belge, Cirque Muller-Zavatta, and others. In the Tarn region, at the establishment ‘Au cœur des félins’, three babies were born as recently as 30 June, prompting us to report the matter to the authorities. And what about the Cirque Claudio Zavatta, which we investigated, documenting the birth of nine lion cubs in the summer of 2024, after it cowardly abandoned nine adult lions who were old or in poor health?
An elephant brutally ‘disappeared’
After more than three decades of exploitation, trainer Max Aucante took advantage of the government is inaction to sell Samba to a sedentary Hungarian circus, without anyone noticing. This meant there was no need to comply with the law or to place her in a sanctuary,
even though we had been offering for years to take care of her transfer to a dignified retirement home. And that is not all. To get rid of the elephant, the trainer did not submit any of the mandatory authorisation requests to CITES or the veterinary services.
We have lodgeda request, and an investigation is underway. We have written to the Service and Payment Agency to inform them of these multiple convictions. We call on them not to grant aid to circus operators responsible for mistreatment and illegal exploitation. These offences, like the immense suffering of the animals, should not be rewarded with public money or encouraged to continue. To take further action, sign our petition to end the exploitation of animals in circuses. Pouring public money into illegal circuses. How far will the State go to protect these offenders?
One Voice writes to the Service and Payment Agency to oppose State