At the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe, lions breed instead of being sent to a sanctuary...
Since June 22, 2021, the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe has been forbidden to keep any feline. And yet, at the beginning of October in Jons, our investigators filmed a mating between a lion and a lioness. This shows the extent to which circus performers, and Joseph Gougeon in particular, cousin of the circus performers from Cirque de Paris, Italiano and Idéal, ignore official orders and do as they please all the time. Breeding is actually happening in this circus and it’s not its first criminal act: last year alone, it sold a lion to a taxidermist in Paris, and holds a lion with the same identification number as Jon, even though he had been seized from the Cirque de Paris several months earlier! We’re stepping up our administrative procedures.
If our representatives think that by allowing breeding to continue for another two years, they are making compromises and allowing circus performers to “adapt”, what they are really doing is allowing the trade in big cats to continue! Circus performers already benefit from compromises, conscientiously ignoring the regulations that apply to their trade.
Tougher proceedings against a circus that continues to trample on the rules
After our investigators discovered in October that the circus was indeed keeping four lions, despite the partial closure order, we filed an additional complaint (for carrying on an activity in violation of a closure order).
We also wrote to the Rhône DDPP, the department of the prefecture responsible for captive wild animals on its territory, requesting written proof of the death of the lion, who died on February 16, 2021 and was sent to the Parisian taxidermist.
As part of our appeal to the administrative court in June 2021, the prefecture has initiated a procedure to have the lions placed in a suitable structure, but if Gougeon has appealed as it is said, he could keep them in the meantime, as long as they are not presented in a show… Yet the prefectoral decree has not been challenged in the administrative court by the circus.
In any case, we have reinforced our appeal with a supplementary brief for these lions. And since the Rhône DDPP says that the National advisory commission for captive wildlife is due to meet and rule on Gougeon’s application for a competency certificate, we’ve written to the Commission. It’s mind-boggling! We wouldn’t allow a quarter of what circus performers dare to do to any other citizen. We demand to be heard on the serious and numerous failures and unwillingness of the trainer to comply with the regulations.
These lions and lionesses must be entrusted to us!
Following these new elements, we are writing another letter to the prefect, this time to ask him to seize the animals and entrust them to us. Sign the Brindas residents’ petition, already supported by over 20,000 people.