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The fight for the lions at the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe continues in Grenoble

The fight for the lions at the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe continues in Grenoble

The fight for the lions at the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe continues in Grenoble
17.10.2023
The fight for the lions at the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe continues in Grenoble
Circuses

One Voice has been fighting for more than five years against Joseph and Stéphane Gougeon, the owners of the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe, and Guy Mordon, to stop their sleights of hand from allowing them to illegally keep animals, make them reproduce, and traffic them in complete peace. A new hearing is set at the Grenoble Court of Appeal on 18 October 2023 at 2pm.

Edit from 19 October, 12:00pm

The ruling will be made on 20 December.

After a report and an initial decision, Stéphane Gougeon appealed the ruling that sentenced him to a suspended prison sentence because he illegally detained Tarzan the lion at the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe. However, the calls have not brought any luck to the Gougeon family: the latest, carried out by Steve, the trainer of Jon and the lionesses Céleste, Patty, Hanna, and Marli at the Cirque de Paris, confirmed on 21 August that his competency certificate had been withdrawn. Faced with the deterioration in the state of health and the injuries of the four lionesses, the judge couldn’t fail to note the trainer’s inability to take care of animals!

We hope that this conclusion will also be upheld for Stéphane, another circus performer in the family! In fact, we have been condemning his schemes since the investigation started in 2018. We have also revealed over the years that the three men (Joseph, Stéphane, and Guy Mordon, respectively a cousin and maternal uncle) were keeping lions illegally, without having the necessary documents to exploit them (or competency certificates, or authorisation to open). We brought to light the identical identification of two lions (Tarzan was identified as being Jon), the breeding happening, as well as the existence of trafficking, with the resale of a lion to an unauthorised taxidermist.

A sentencing, an acquittal, and a dismissed case

Despite numerous damning elements, the magistrates’ court only recognised that Tarzan was kept illegally. Stéphane Gougeon was the only one of the three to be convicted: a four-month suspended prison sentence.

And it is not the law of 30 November 2021 aiming to fight against animal mistreatment that will allow us to obtain more significant punishments. In fact, although the law aims to put an end to wild animals being kept in travelling circuses, it allows them to keep their animals if they decide to settle. We have therefore attacked the decree which takes an initial step in this direction by establishing an equivalence between circus competency certificates and those for zoos, and the government’s false pretences on this issue.

A new hearing that must close the case file

We will be present on 18 October 2023 at 2pm at the Grenoble Court of Appeal to, once again, get animals’ voices heard and to obtain – we hope – a firm and definitive punishment against the actions of Stéphane Gougeon, the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe trainer.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest

Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest

Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest
12.10.2023
Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest
Wildlife

To demand an end to the massacring of wolves in our country, One Voice is organising militant action in different towns in France throughout the month of October.On Saturday 14 October in Limoges, an event has been planned by our volunteers to inform the public on wolves, their sensitivity, their intelligence, their way of life, and the importance of their place in biodiversity. The Coordination Rurale in Haute-Vienne, terrified by a stand raising awareness, tried to get our protest banned using press releases. We wish them luck because One Voice has never backed down when it comes to defending wolves.

Packs are in reality true families, where each individual has its role to play for the survival of each of them. Contrary to what those who oppose them try to make people believe by demonising them, wolves do not represent a danger for humans: they try to avoid them as much as possible.

But clearly, at the CR87, rather than informing, they persist in spreading the same perpetual twaddle about wolves. Even when we give free rein to a boundless imagination, everyone will be able to read that “these wolves have been released, and even pro-wolf associations recognised the existence of clandestine breeding operations that were completely impenetrable and difficult to manage”.

A notoriously anti-wolf union

This same group that opposes an educational protest planned and authorised by the prefecture do not hesitate to incite their members to commit crimes. Thus, at the end of 2021, the Coordination Rurale 87 openly called for the poaching of wolves! “In Haute-Vienne, we have pellets and poison and will regulate ourselves!”, their representative said at the time in the press.

We will not give in to this attempt at intimidation by a deadly lobby, who each year send more than a thousand animals to the abattoir in France and campaign to exterminate wolves that are already in a critically vulnerable situation. We will be in Limoges next Saturday to defend their right to live in peace. 138 of them have already been slaughtered this year, 6 others poached, and unfortunately the massacre is not over. The State has effectively reviewed and increased the maximum number of exceptional shots, authorising the killing of 209 individuals in 2023. Without counting those who die ‘accidentally’ due to purely human reasons: traffic, trapping…

Come and meet us in Amiens (80), Digne-les-Bains (04), Montpellier (34), Limoges (87), Metz (57), Aix-en-Provence (13), Troyes (10), Flers (14) ; Rouen (76) ; Nantes (44), Bar-Le-Duc (55), and Strasbourg (67). While waiting for an end to shooting, sign our petition to ask that wolves be respected.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Justice: six associations are filing a plea against marmot and mountain hare hunting in Savoie

The Association Justice Animaux Savoie (AJAS), ASPAS, Animal Cross, AVES France, FNE Savoie, and One Voice are filing a plea against the prefectural decree authorising the hunting of marmots and mountain hares, emblematic animals in the Alps. These two species, protected by the Bern Convention, are in decline due to the destruction of their reproduction habitat and climate change. However, hunting them is still authorised! An interim hearing has been set in the coming days in Grenoble while a petition having gained almost 80,000 signatures is asking the government for a pure and simple ban on hunting marmots throughout the country.