One Voice summoned to a tribunal by the circus who wants to take away the right to defend the elephant Maya
The
circus that is holding and exploiting the elephant Maya urgently
summons One Voice, arguing the case of a damaged reputation and drop
in attendance. On February 13th,
2018 at 1:30 pm the hearing will take place at the Tribunal de Grande
Instance in Strasbourg. By this procedure, the circus hopes to
prevent One Voice from continuing to publicly defend Maya. However,
it is part of the mission of the association to show its suffering,
which is not going to be abandoned.
The
circus wants to forbid One Voice from speaking and acting on behalf
of Maya. Their wish: to silence her defenders. As for the circus,
Maya is “in perfect health“.
This
family therefore requires the removal of the #JusticePourMaya
(Justice for Maya) petition signed by more than 115,000 people, as
well as all Facebook articles, tweets and publications from the One
Voice websites and pages. Thus, any use of photographs of Maya –
taken by the association -, leaflets or signs talking about her would
not be allowed anymore.
They
have even demanded the court to ban One Voice from organizing
demonstrations or rallies for her.
The
demands of this private enterprise are almost limitless, as they go
so far as to force the animal rights society as an act of contrition
by demanding a public apology.
Under
the pretext of an alleged loss of profit, and a loss of image, the
circus wants to continue to exploit this elephant captured in Asia
and held captivity for more than 40 years, and is clearly suffering.
Her incessant repetitive swinging should have alerted her “keepers”,
also, her deformed posture does not match that of a healthy elephant
and her emaciated body is not just a sign of old age.
Muriel
Arnal, president-founder of One Voice is shocked by such requests:
“Maya has not been seen
alive since November by our investigators who have searched
everywhere, and now the circus dares to attack us.” In order to
know that she is alive, our lawyer contacted the circus whose only
answer was that the owner was not allowed by his clients to give us
news. Today our concern is deeply worrying. Is Maya still alive? If
she is doing so well as the circus claims, why are they hiding her?
We will eventually find out the truth, and those responsible will
have to answer for what happened to her. “
