The Muller Circus’ display of violence towards One Voice’s activists

Once again, as they did on our activists in Narbonne in 2018 and on law enforcement during the attempted legal seizure of Jumbo, and each time that people dare to say loud and clear what they think of the mistreatment of animals and the numerous irregularities by their circus, the Mullers use brute force. Like, also, when they intimidated the family of a truck driver during the seizure of the Masson tigers while he was on the road, or when they threatened to kill the co-founder of PAZ, threats for which they were convicted...

Illegality as a belief in this circus

The trainers had illegally installed their circus lorries and big top — the circus is sometimes called 100% international, sometimes Canadian — by deceiving the community, while our demonstration was announced by the Prefecture. Nevertheless, the animals were enclosed for the whole day in overcrowded trailer-cages in a heatwave. It was almost fifty degrees inside. At the roundabout next to Décathlon in Gap, the demonstration got worse even before the time it was supposed to start... one of the circus artists had even called the authorities before the event to warn that there would be damage if it continued. In short, a very much pre-meditated ambush...

Always the same modus operandi...

Lorries and vehicles used as weapons, stones and iron bars thrown by the circus performers; cardboard signs, microphones, and telephones used by our activists. No discussion is possible with the Mullers: they jump straight to intimidation and physical violence. This time, our cameras were not there to testify to this. The police were also there when the men from the Muller clan went to threaten everyone and to hit the activists. The point of contact from our local group was slapped; the materials (signs, banners, megaphone) were destroyed by the group of circus performers that came to confront them.

More than five years of fighting to save Jumbo...

Our fight to defend Jumbo goes back several years. We are the first to have investigated and revealed that the hippopotamus only left the lorry for a quick half an hour each day when the menagerie was open to the public, and that he did not have access to an outdoor pool. Contrary to what the circus repeats over and over, we also condemned the Muller Circus father and son for setting up a situation likely to cause suffering to Jumbo in 2020 and we asked the administrative judge to order the seizure of Jumbo in 2019, even if this could not happen. Since, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition awarded him with a lifetime licence for Jumbo, and renewed the one that they had for the tigers that they are keeping. Proceedings are still ongoing against the Circus, for Jumbo, the monkeys, the tigers, and the tiger cubs... as well as our activists. That makes it one more... Imagine the fate reserved for the animals they keep...

At the time of publishing this article we still do not know the full severity of the situation but we do already know that multiple videos and testimonies from our activists will be used to file a new complaint against the Mullers.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice