Baby’s trainer faces justice on May 6th in Marmande
The judgment is reserved until June 3, 2019 at 2 p.m.
Do you know Baby? Perhaps your thinking no or probably you do. For more than 30 years, this elephant has been surveying film sets, appearing on advertising spots, participating in television shows, sitting on stools in circus shows… His trainer passes before the Agen Correctional Court in Marmande at 2.00 pm on Tuesday, May 6th for the irregular exploitation of a non-domestic animal.
An elephant uprooted
Originally from Africa, Baby was captured in 1985 when she was two years old. Like all baby elephants kidnapped in the wild, she had to live through many traumas before ending up in France to perform in shows. Since then, she has been offered for rental by Gilbert Bauer, she has been used to host both official inaugurations, Christmas trees, trade fairs, municipal parades, children’s snacks, birthdays and other private parties. Listening to the trainer, Baby is like his daughter and swims in happiness by his side … The public is fooled by this illusion, but is this the life for an elephant?
Uprooted from her native land, isolated from all contact with her family-while elephants are highly social animals-and suffering from a disability in the rear left foot, she is so alone … At her age, Baby should live on the burning hot planes of the savannah along with his aging mother and sisters, baby elephants and nephews. Walking would be their daily life, helping to teach little ones, the transmissions from the matriarchs. Their common memory would take them from place to place, those of love, those of meditation, those of feasts…
But Baby is far from this life, she can only dream of it now, forced as she is to turn around on a stool, to return the ball to thunderous music, to pose for photos or to be forced to parade on tarmac, close to humans she should never have met.
The penal procedure
The association has been tracking and monitoring Baby for a long time, and has consistently gathered evidence to denounce and rescue her.
On May 27th 2017, Gilbert Bauer went too far, and our warnings were heard by the authorities. That day the trainer paraded Baby without respecting the regulatory safety measures concerning the presentation of wild animals to the public. Inspectors from the National Office of Hunting and Wild Fauna (ONCFS) were able to observe that no electric barrier or fence separated the crowd from the elephant. Also, these elephants had to support performers that were perched upon their backs and that any of the public, including children, could approach her very closely.
The consequences of this offense could have been dramatic and Gilbert Bauer is now being prosecuted for the illegal exploitation of non-domestic animals. He is scheduled to appear before the Agen District Court on May 6th at 2 p.m. It is a step forward. One Voice however wishes to go further and requests that this criminal procedure be reclassified as ill-treatment and that Baby be entrusted to us.
For her and all of the animals exploited for the entertainment of certain
humans, we call for the ban on this practice. Their place is in a sanctuary !
The judgment is reserved until June 3, 2019 at 2 p.m.
The court found Gilbert Bauer guilty of failing to implement sufficient safety measures and fined him €500. We won’t abandon Baby!