A court hearing against the Prefect of the Drôme to release Jumbo from the circus!

It
is with the upmost patience that we continue our fight for Jumbo. On
October 29^th,
we will be at the Administrative Court of Grenoble to denounce once
again the living conditions of this hippopotamus, sequestered by the
Muller circus and the unacceptable sit back and do-nothing attitude
of the administrative authorities vis-à-vis its torturers.

A new appeal against the prefecture of Drôme

Already
two years have passed while we have waited for this hearing … they
now intervene following our appeal, going back to 2017, an affair
which has opposed us from the beginning, the Prefecture of the Drôme
being the biggest hindrance. For the record, we filed a law suit
against this institution for “excess of authority” after it
refused to place Jumbo into a sanctuary, despite flagrant evidence of
abuse that we have presented. Our proof is damning… It shows that
the most basic needs of this hippopotamus, sequestered for 30 years now, are not respected and that his life, one that is deprived of
water, is a living hell.

Inspections and illusions

But
the Prefecture has preferred to hide behind inspection reports not
mentioning any particular problems. It must be said that the visits
by veterinarians are usually announced or even made at the request of
the circus when it suits them! An inspector told Le Point magazine in 2017 that she had not performed a clinical examination of Jumbo, that
she had not carried out a clinical examination of Jumbo, that she had
not even touched him at the time when the hippos «owners» had urged
her to establish a health status of the animal! She also acknowledged
that she could not know if the “conditions were satisfactory” she
had observed where the circus had parked up in the cities where the
touring show was performing… We suspect that in honouring the
planned visits of the veterinarian, the Muller circus had for once
observed decorum and deployed all its resources to persuade the
outcome of the inspection…

On the side of reality

On our side, we followed Jumbo
tracing every movement of the circus. And we know the realities of
his ordeal. Our investigations, the reports from our experts, attest
to his immense distress. As for his torturers, we have had many
opportunities to have witnessed first-hand their violence, both
verbal and physical, from those who do not think as us: our teams
have largely paid the price. Witness the screenshots on their
Facebook page, included in the article of the newspaper Le Point,
where we see their high degree of reflection and argumentation … It
is of upmost urgency that Jumbo be removed from their clutches; his
survival is at stake. In the wake of our appeal against the
Prefecture of October 29^th
to the administrative court of Grenoble, the lawsuit we filed against
the circus Muller for ill-treatment – the first of its kind in France
– will be held a month later in Valencia.

Please continue to support our
action for Jumbo by signing our petition !