Circus
Animal exploitation, a circus that must end!
In the wild, the territory of a lion, tiger or elephant extends over dozens, even hundreds of square kilometres. In circuses, these majestic animals are kept in lorries, locked up in cages that are as tiny as they are unsuitable. Shackled, beaten and starved, forced to perform unnatural, painful and frightening acts, they are slaves to dangerous and humiliating shows that make their lives a never-ending ordeal.
For twenty-five years, One Voice has been investigating, raising awareness and fighting to ban all exploitation of wild or domestic animals in circuses. Our association is working with recognised experts and scientists, firmly attesting to their physical and psychological suffering. We support town councils that wish to do so, and take legal action to obtain the release of the animals. Our cases and investigations are aimed at banning their exploitation outright, exposing trafficking of all kinds, rescuing the victims and placing them in sanctuaries.
Why are we fighting against the exploitation of animals in the circus?
Reasons to fight: cruelty on stage
Lights, music, applause. In the ring, the animals are stressed and attacked from all sides for the sole entertainment of an audience that is often oblivious to what is going on.
Under threat, the felines have to overcome their fear of fire, the elephants have to walk on their knees: exercises they only agree to perform for fear of punishment if they disobey. Out of sight, their lot is no better: insalubrity, lack of water and space, promiscuity and extreme solitude punctuate their repetitive and unhappy daily lives. Whether wild or domestic, the same miserable fate condemns them to suffering and fear, even death.
These shows, which are in no way educational, trivialise domination through violence in the eyes of children, and the reification of living beings in the name of entertainment.
A long-term battle…
Passed in 2021, the law against animal abuse has done nothing to change the condition of animals used for entertainment.
Worse still, it has distracted public attention and does nothing to prevent exploitation, illegal reproduction or trafficking. For Samba, the elephant we’ve been following since 2002, or for Jumbo, the amphibious hippopotamus who has been languishing in a tin lorry for over twenty years, the ordeal continues. Faced with these situations of mistreatment, which are illegal to boot, and the indifference of the authorities, we never stop fighting.
… and some resounding victories
Our actions and investigations are increasingly leading to exciting victories.
In 2020, the ten tigers locked in Mario Masson’s lorry were seized by the courts as a result of our campaign.
The lion Jon and the four lionesses Hannah, Patty, Céleste and Marly were also rescued from the clutches of their torturers in a historic liberation. While Jon eventually died as a result of his trauma, the lionesses are enjoying a peaceful life in our sanctuary in Italy.
Like Mario Masson before him, their trainer Steve Gougeon has been severely punished by the courts for ill-treatment, an unprecedented development in France.
Key figures
An alarming fact
Our proposals
Our proposals to the French government
- Banning the exploitation of animals in sedentary circuses
- Banning the hire of animals for shows
- Place animals currently held by circuses in shelters and ban all exchanges and reproduction
- Seizing animals in the event of infringement of the Order of 18 March 2011
- Create at least one register of animals present in circuses, to be updated annually.
History
The whole story of our fight against the exploitation of animals in circuses
December 2020
For two years, our investigators took risks to build a case against trainer Mario Masson. Patience paid off and we were able to use hidden camera footage to prove the disgraceful living conditions of ten tigers, locked together by the trainer in a 20 m2 lorry. Following our complaint, on 16 December 2020, the tigers were seized by the courts and placed in safekeeping pending the completion of the public prosecutor's investigation.
June 2020
In June 2020, we obtained the seizure of Jon, a mutilated and undocumented lion held by the Cirque de Paris. The courts then gave us custody of him. Following this first victory, we also obtained the seizure of the four lionesses Hannah, Patti, Céleste and Marli, held by the same circus. This is the first time in France that animals have been seized from a circus solely for ill-treatment, at the request of an association.
March 2020
Jumbo, the amphibious hippopotamus, remains a prisoner in a dungeon at the Müller circus. Although the Valence criminal court initially convicted the Müllers of illegal exploitation and of placing and keeping an animal in an environment likely to cause it suffering, it did not see fit to force the Drôme prefecture to remove Jumbo from the hands of the circus owners. Since then, we have continued our investigations and campaigns. In March 2020, we lodged a new complaint for Jumbo, but also to free the ponies and macaques held by the Müllers. We will not give in for them.
September 2019
That month, our investigators filmed the three bears Micha, Glasha and Bony, held by trainers Sacha Poliakov and Dany Bruneau. The bears, locked up in unsanitary conditions, were dying, far from view. We immediately lodged a complaint with the Blois public prosecutor for acts of cruelty. Moved by our images, Elisabeth Borne, then Minister for Ecological Transition and Solidarity, ordered Micha to be placed in a medical sanctuary, but the bear died shortly afterwards. Following this death, we obtained the placement of Glasha and Bony in a sanctuary. In May 2021, we took the Poliakovs to court in Blois. We asked for all their animals to be removed and for them to be taken into our custody.
May 2019
The exploitation of Samba (renamed Tania in 2003) is dragging on: recent images show her thinner than ever, lying on the asphalt of a tiny pen. After 17 years of fighting for her, we are once again lodging a complaint.
April 2019
Help for the tigers! At Parc Saint-Paul (60), the trainer shows off a tigron for photo sessions with children. The frightened baby tiger, separated from its mother, screamed in vain. We filed a complaint. In the case of Mévy, the tigress who escaped from the circus in November 2017 and was shot dead in the streets of Paris by her trainer, the public prosecutor is asking for the case to be acquitted... We will attend as many hearings as it takes to get to the bottom of her death!
February - May 2019
Since July 2017 our fight for Jumbo has intensified. A prosecutor has made it possible to seize him several times: the police, ONCFS and One Voice logistics have been mobilised. But once again, circus violence broke out and prevented the hippopotamus from being seized. The following month saw a demonstration in Paris and an article in the press signed by fifteen well-known figures. The trial scheduled for May against the hippo's owners for mistreatment (a first) was postponed, leaving Jumbo to wait yet again despite new and appalling expert reports. The "show" goes on in this circus, with macaques strapped to galloping ponies!
2019
One Voice is celebrating 20 years in the fight for animal-free circuses! We are continuing, for them. A dedicated website, cirques-sans-animaux.fr, has been launched to mark the occasion and remind us of our campaigns, as well as the individuals we have saved and defended.
September 2018
Set free! Captive for 42 years, Lechmee is finally at rest. Exploited, blind and handicapped, she received 93,400 supporters on our petition, as well as numerous forums, complaints and appeals in 2 years of campaigning. Our action has made a difference! Mina and Kamala remain at the heart of our concerns and actions.
July 2018
Maya has been freed from the circus! Endless rallies, procedures and appeals, scientific expertise, support from the public in their hundreds of thousands, including many celebrities... Maya's cause, taken all the way to the French Presidency, culminated in a veterinary inspection confirming her health problems, which were incompatible with circus activity. The prefecture ordered her retirement from the circus. We are still defending her lifelong companions, Nelly and Brigit.
July 2018
At a time when our Walloon neighbours are adopting an animal welfare code that is the most comprehensive and progressive in Europe, One Voice is visiting the Mayors of Bastia and Ajaccio, and offering the local elected representatives of any municipality that requests it, its expertise in unassailable decrees banning circuses with animals.
June 2018
A year after denouncing the illegal "parades" imposed on felines, particularly through the story of Sultan, One Voice has learned of the irregular administrative situation of the lions held by another circus. The seizure of Bébé, Bellone, Caroline, Nelson and Mandela was pre-empted by the measures taken by the circus, followed by their removal. Sultan also remained unaccounted for. Investigations, petitions, raising public awareness: One Voice is defending all these suffering lions, hidden away like Elyo, covered in wounds, amorphous and isolated in his cage truck.
March 2018
In January, Muriel Arnal visited the bear and elephant sanctuary founded by One Voice in India, a long way from Europe and its often irregular exploitation, with dramatic consequences. When Diana died in April on a Spanish road, we thought of Vicky, her companion freed by One Voice. As for Baby, she is forced to parade without authorisation. For Dumba, aged 41, isolated and constantly hired out for shows, exhibited and photographed in the company of children, the association is working with its Spanish partner FAADA to put an end to her ordeal.
March 2017
While the French National Order of Veterinary Surgeons confirms that the "conditions in which animals are held cannot meet their physiological and social needs", One Voice is starting new procedures to free the elephant Maya, whose condition is becoming critical after more than 40 years of exploitation by circuses, and is asking for her to be placed in a partner sanctuary as a matter of urgency. While the courts are still turning a deaf ear to One Voice's appeals, activists are calling for her release, through petitions and a silent demonstration organised on 28 October in Paris.
2017
To free the animals held by circuses, in particular Lechmee, Mina and Kamala, the three elephants in the Medrano circus, One Voice is launching a legal procedure unprecedented in France and is seeking arbitration from the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté.
2016
A campaign has been launched with Code Animal to offer retirement to Lechmee, Mina and Kamala, the elephants from the Medrano circus. They would be the first residents of Elephant Haven!
2014
A new survey is devoted to the conditions in which elephants are kept in circuses. It is illustrated by comments from John Knight, a veterinary surgeon and animal welfare specialist who knows Samba well, and shows that all the establishments visited put the public at considerable risk.
2013
An educational cycle, with a teaching kit for children and discussion groups for teenagers, has been set up for teachers.
2012
One Voice denounces the exploitation of dogs in circuses. Its investigations reveal brutal training methods and squalid holding conditions. Poorly fed, crammed into cages or tied up too short, they receive no affection whatsoever.
2011
Two simultaneous circles of silence for Samba and all the captive elephants are being organised in Paris and Strasbourg to round off a year of mobilisation.
2010
A circle of silence for Samba and all the elephants held captive in circuses is being organised at the Trocadéro in Paris.
2008
The lion Brutus was freed after two and a half years of fighting. He was transferred to the Shamwari reserve in South Africa, with financial support from Cirque Phoenix and the SPA.
2007
A major action for Samba is organised with a storyteller, musicians and African dancers. Muriel Arnal and Daniel Turner, coordinator of ENDCAP, the European coalition against the captivity of wild animals, were received at the Ministry of Ecology. A video montage of investigations carried out in circuses by One Voice was handed over, along with the petition for Samba's release, which had 128,000 signatures. They succeeded in ensuring that a first version of the revised decree, deemed insufficient, was not voted through.
2007
The national gendarmerie has been trained by One Voice to monitor the conditions in which animals are kept in circuses.
2006
Three lions - Djunka, Nalla and Shada - are being freed from their tiny cages after our investigation revealed that they were being held illegally. The operation is being carried out in partnership with the Born Free foundation. They will be transferred to South Africa, to the Shamwari reserve.
2006
The tigress Maomie, held illegally by a circus, was seized thanks to the work of our investigators. She was taken in by the Arche refuge.
2006
The confiscation of the elephant Vicky is a first in France. After years of European mobilisation and several months of tracking and changing circuses, One Voice's investigators found her alone in a trailer with no heat or light, where the temperature had dropped to -7°C... Her state of health required an emergency seizure, which was carried out under high tension in a hostile climate. She was sent to Gdansk, to a zoo which, like a sanctuary, takes in many rescued animals. There she will be able to live with another elephant in semi-liberty. The circus's lawsuit, won by One Voice, will set a precedent.
2005
The lioness Simba has been released from the circus where she had been kept for six years. Thanks to a joint operation by One Voice and the Olga association, she has been transferred to the Refuge de l'Arche.
2004
One Voice is organising a major demonstration in Marseille to demand Samba's release. A support committee has been set up, including Professor Pierre Pfeffer, vets Marie-Claude Bomsel, Bruno Lassalle, Valérie Duphot and actor/producer Jacques Perrin.
2003
Muriel Arnal, accompanied by Professor Pierre Pfeffer, an eminent elephant specialist, presented 40,000 signatures for Samba's release to the French Ministry of Ecology.
2003
The campaign to free the elephant Samba has been launched. Captured in Kenya at the age of one after seeing her family massacred, then locked up in a circus, Samba was beaten because she refused to mime her own death. One Voice has lodged a complaint against her trainer.
2000
Achille, a thirty-six-year-old chimpanzee, is the first animal to be released from a circus in France. He had been living in a 3 m2 cage for fifteen years, despite the fact that circuses are not allowed to keep animals that are not involved in the show, and that he does not have a certificate of competence. He was taken in by the Stichting-AAP sanctuary in the Netherlands.