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Nouveau Cirque Triomphe: One Voice vs Gougeon and Mordon at the Bourgoin-Jallieu Tribunal on 14 September

Nouveau Cirque Triomphe: One Voice vs Gougeon and Mordon at the Bourgoin-Jallieu Tribunal on 14 September

Nouveau Cirque Triomphe: One Voice vs Gougeon and Mordon at the Bourgoin-Jallieu Tribunal on 14 September
12.09.2022
Nouveau Cirque Triomphe: One Voice vs Gougeon and Mordon at the Bourgoin-Jallieu Tribunal on 14 September

On Wednesday 14 September at 9am, the hearing at the Bourgoin-Jallieu Legal Tribunal regarding the case opposing One Voice against the Gougeon-Mordons will take place.

On Wednesday 14 September at 9am, the hearing at the Bourgoin-Jallieu Legal Tribunal will take place regarding one of the branches of the case between One Voice and Gougeon. This family of circus performers whose brothers and cousins share the Idéal, Italiano, Nouveau Cirque Triomphe, and Cirque de Paris circuses (where in 2020 we seized the lion who we renamed Jon, and four lionesses, Patty, Marli, Hannah, and Céleste).

Edit from 19 September 2022

The hearing has been postponed to 16 January 2023 at 1:30pm.

In 2022, we filed a complaint against Joseph and Stéphane Gougeon, owners of the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe, and against Guy Mordon. In fact, none of them had licences to open or competency certifications allowing them to exploit lions, which they have not stopped doing for years nevertheless.

Joseph Gougeon did not obtain a renewal of his competency certification, which he lost in 2017
following numerous serious irregularities noted in his circus by the authorities. His son, who he entrusted the animals to, did not have one either. Since, the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe has no right to keep lions or even to open the establishment. They decided to ‘give’ the lions up to Guy Mordon, the uncle of Stéphane Gougeon, who himself is at capacity. But, as we discovered, the lions have never actually set foot in Guy Mordon’s circus (although the babies have been born!). They are therefore to blame for having deceived the authorities about this, and for having opened the establishment without authorisation or any competent person.

Imaginative identifications, births, a missing logbook, swapping animals, selling post mortem to an unapproved taxidermist… Did you say trafficking?

On our side, we know thanks to an enquiry that the trainers from this family do not hesitate in lying to traffic animals, since a lion kept by the Gougeons had the same identification as Jon, the lion seized in June 2020 by the association. They let them seize a lion in a bad state to be able to keep the lion identified in the logbook and since moved him to Tonga just before he was to be seized, as ordered by the justice system. He is called Tarzan.

We also know that Joseph Gougeon gave a lion’s remains to a taxidermist, who turned out not to be approved. Our investigation revealed that this taxidermist sold the skins for around 15 to 20 thousand euros each, and that he worked with other circuses. He even confessed to our investigators that it was possible to get a lion put down to order, under dubious pretexts.

Over the years, the Gougeons have not cared about checks, visits, or inspections by the authorities: changing the place, lying… while they should not have been keeping any lions!

During one of the checks for Jon and the lionesses, the issue of the logbook of identifications and health monitoring was posed. The Gougeons then alleged that the book had been forgotten or lost during a trip to their mother’s house…

In 2018, we were already trying to seize the lions and lionesses from the cirque Italiano, big cats kept by other members of this family.

We are waiting for an exemplary punishment and for the animals to be secured

Lies, proof of trafficking… from the birth of the animals to their lives filled with exploitation, enclosed in a lorry-cage, repeatedly moved from one establishment to another, non-existent or very weak traceability, and their skins sold by a reseller with debatable professionalism, the punishment must be exemplary.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Official opening of the Chatipi for stray cats at the La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris on Wednesday 14 September at 6pm

One Voice, who has fought against feline straying for years, is implementing three-way partnerships with town councils or drop-in centres and local associations to microchip and neuter homeless cats and release them, while providing them with a wooden chalet for them to rehydrate themselves, eat, and take comfort. This is therefore what is happening at the La Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where the local association, Nine Lives, and the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP: the University Hospital Trust in Paris) have signed a convention with One Voice for them to take charge of the problem of stray cats in the Parisian hospital. The Chatipi programme allows cats without a human family to stop suffering from deprivation and teaches about cats as well as about feline straying. The official opening of the Chatipi will take place in La Pitié-Salpêtrière on Saturday 14 September at 6pm.

And 9! The Administrative Tribunal rules in favour of One Voice once more for the bears in the Pyrenees.

And 9! The Administrative Tribunal rules in favour of One Voice once more for the bears in the Pyrenees.

And 9! The Administrative Tribunal rules in favour of One Voice once more for the bears in the Pyrenees.
31.08.2022
And 9! The Administrative Tribunal rules in favour of One Voice once more for the bears in the Pyrenees.
Wildlife

Following what we consider to be a miscarriage of justice – the Ariège Prefecture has retracted two decrees contrary to the legal ruling from the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal which suspended the scaring of brown bears in the Pyrenees – yesterday, the day after their publication, we urgently filed an interim suspension to stop new applications for scaring. The Tribunal ruled in favour of the bears and therefore in favour of One Voice once again. True humiliation for the Prefecture.

Photo: Collectif Hope

We are asking for peace for the bears, those who are born on French soil and those placed there by force in a hostile environment, after having been uprooted from their families and their country. On one of the mountain pastures, the suspension will prevent the surge of violence that the farmers intend for the bears: flash-balls, sting-ball grenades… On another, they could have had a blast last night, the Prefecture having done everything possible to reduce the time between publication and the application of these laws. All to try to appease discontented farmers…

At the hearing, the services of the Prefecture had made the trip, not understanding how we can object to the fact that animals who are already having trouble surviving without this (and protected by numerous laws!) are thus pushed out of their territory and with so much violence. The Court therefore justified its decision in the following terms:

«Even though it remains subject to debate, the risk that the implementation of these measures will have the effect of pushing bears away from these mountain pastures, which is a component of their natural habitat, and therefore of evicting them from part of their natural range, is not invalid. In the same way, the science alludes to a non-negligible risk that the animal might be subject to auditory injuries, risk of separation from cubs during the flight of the females following, and abortion for pregnant females from the effects of double detonation shots.»

It is difficult to be crystal clear on the risks entailed for bears subjected to ‘scaring shots’. What is more is that this method has not been proven to be effective in protecting herds. Herds made up of animals — should we remind you again? — who are destined for the abattoir and whose losses are compensated.

It is a legally substantiated decision that reminds the Prefecture of the authority of a legal decision that they cannot get around at will. In the absence of new elements, the Court’s annoyance regarding the Ariège Prefecture is particularly noticeable.

«By issuing their new decree of 29 August 2022 and justifying it as they did, without resolving the serious doubt that had justified the decision to suspend their previous decree of 24 June 2022, the Ariège Prefect seems to have directly misled the authority that was linked to the judge’s ruling on the emergency interim proceedings at the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal on 22 August 2022[…] Consequently, the argument alleging that these two decrees from the Ariège Prefect violate the rulings by the judge on 3 August 2022 and 22 August 2022 is capable of creating, at this stage of the investigation, serious doubt regarding the legality of these decrees.»

Considering that the Prefecture therefore still did not justify that the conditions were met for breaching the protection of bears, the Tribunal has urgently suspended these new decrees.

We are ready to attack once more if by chance the Prefecture publishes other similar decrees concerning the five mountain pastures remaining.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice