Save the memory of Mevy!

Her name was Mevy. It’s been a year since this tigress, only 18 months old, was fleeing her cage and the circus Bormann. A few strides later, she was cowardly shot down by her trainer in an unpopulated Parisian street. Immediately after the fact, we pressed charges. Our lawyer was able to access detailed information about the circumstances of the tragedy.

A petrified tiger

On November 24^th2017 it was through a wide-open gate that Mevy escaped. In his first statement, his trainer also admitted to being at the origin of the incident: he had inadvertently fell in front of the cage of tigers and actuated the opening latch. Subsequently, the man changed his explanations several times, but in all cases, there was an error on the part of the trainer during the manipulation of the door. What is the dream of a wild animal that has known, since its birth, nothing but sequestration, boredom, threats, mistreatment? What does she do when the gate of this hell suddenly opens before her? she escapes! Unfortunately, it is neither the scent of freedom, nor the forests or meadow of Asia that Mevy found outside. Only exhaust fumes and the tumult of the city that awaited her. Panicked to find herself thus left to her own devices in the heart of the XV borough of Paris, blinded by the light from the houses, stunned by the din of cars, she ran to take refuge in an isolated street just a few meters from the capital.

Summary execution

Stuck in a dead end, lying on the asphalt, Mevy showed no aggression when her owner found her. It did not represent immediate danger. Equipped with a shotgun, the man had the means to keep it in control while the circus staff, the firefighters or a veterinarian intervened. A simple net or a hypodermic dart placing the animal in a state of drowsiness – if not a slight wound – would have been enough to catch her. But no! At no point has the trainer considered any alternative other than execution of the poor tigress who, according to her own confession, was simply “lying down, doing nothing else”! It is true that in the world of big cat trainers, it is more glorious to draw up the whip – and here his rifle – to subdue a “ferocious beast” than to be interested in their behaviour and recognize their distress … So, the first bullet hits the left flank of the feline at bay. Then a second ends up lodged in her neck. Poor Mevy still breathing and in no doubt terrified and in agony, when the third and fatal shot destroyed her skull.

One Voice is angry

The last moments of the tigress’s life were, in the image of a short one, moulded with pain and fear. While a horde of humans were frightened to know she was on the loose, it was she who anguished the most and sought to shelter herself from a world into which she would never have the keys. On which vision of horror had her eyes finally gazed upon? That of her “master” unleashed, the persecutor persecuting even at the end, even beyond submission, until death. Such cruelty revolts us, such a thirst for domination that led to the debasement, then the annihilation of the victim, makes us sick. And yet … The complaint that we had filed last year was closed! This is unacceptable: no one wants justice for Mevy? We will not let her memory be trampled upon in this way. Her suffering must be recognized and the perpetrator (s) of her murder identified and sentenced (s). One Voice therefore takes direct action against the circus Bormann and will not let go. More than ever, we continue our fight against the presence of animals in circuses. We must obtain the deliverance of all those oppressed and so none of them will ever suffer the same fate as Mevy.

Next February, we will finally have a hearing at the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. This will be the first in a long series so that more light will be shed on her last moments and the culprits will be named.

Picture: DR