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. "
