The circuses

From the track to the cage: the miserable life of animals in circuses

In the ring, animals are attacked from all sides. Bright lights, music, applause and screams are a source of great stress. But they must overcome it, and execute, under the threat of the trainer, tricks often unnatural, painful or frightening. Overcoming their fear of fire for felines, walking on their knees for the elephants, are exercises that they only accept to carry out for fear of punishment in case of disobedience...

When they leave the ring, they return to tiny cages or are parked in small pens, where they have nothing to do. The soil is very often hard and made of concrete or covered with dirty litter, most of the time without sufficient fresh water. Suffering from of isolation or overcrowding, regardless of their real needs, they become insane and locked in stereotyped behaviors, displayed over and over again. Then, in the trailers that transport them from town to town, they will endure temperature differences to such extent that frostbite are sometimes found on elephants’ ears.

Whether wild or domestic, all suffer the same miserable fate as long as they are able to perform in the show...

+100

of cities refuse circuses with animals

69%

of French people consider animals in circuses unhappy

19 years

of fighting for animals in circuses

Maya, an Asian elephant, has reached 49 years old, exhausted and suffering. She has been abused for 41 years by the circus… But considering animal shows, it is also our children who pay the consequences. They see it as a model of blind obedience, domination by violence, exploitation of the weak, denial of the identity of the animal, reduced to the state of a mere object dedicated to amusement.

The violent training of animals for the circus

There is neither respect nor complicity. Under the circus’ big top, there is only submission by violence. Blows and intimidations rain down to compel them to obey. They fear the trainer more than the pain or fear generated by the exercise they have to perform. The whip submits the felines; the use of a sharp spike is reserved for the elephants. Sometimes they are "broken", rebelling, or are too difficult to train. We then send them to a center where we try to make them "exploitable". The investigation made by One Voice revealed all behind the scenes.

Safety issues for animals and the public

In circuses, the conditions of safety cannot be guaranteed, neither for the animals, nor for the public or the residents ... The danger is at the same time sanitary - with a risk of zoonosis, diseases that can be transmitted from one to the other - and physical: bites, escape and other incidents are common. We remember the tragic escape of elephant Samba in 2013, which cost the life of a resident she barged into during her mad drive to freedom...

The One Voice’s investigation at a training center

One Voice's investigation into a wild animal training center for circus and media revealed what goes on behind the scene...
In this center, a trainer deals not only with young animals but also those recovered from circuses where they have been "broken".

Confiding in our investigators, he told the pitiful state of the animals that ended up being taken again for a new phase of training. In particular, he told us of a lioness's head that had been deformed by blows. To get a lion to jump on a stool, the man had seen two Circassians holding it with a rope around its neck, while a third held a threatening bar in his hand.
But his own practices are no less debatable. If he said that in theory, the animals are not trained before the age of one year; our investigators have witnessed the brutal training of lion cubs aged barely 3 months...

One Voice’s campaign for animals in circuses

One Voice fights for the suffering of animals in circuses to be known to the general public and for their exploitation to be banned. We work with scientifically recognized experts whose reports testify to the physical and psychological sufferings endured, such as health and safety risks. Its investigations make it possible to follow closely the animals whose situation is the most concerning, and to put together the files necessary to obtain their liberation and their placement in sanctuaries.

One Voice is at the heart of the first complaint filed against a circus, and especially of the first seizure: the chimpanzee Achille, in 2000. Since, Maomie the tigress, Vicky the elephant and lions Brutus, Maousi, Simba, Djunka Nalla and Shada were transferred to sanctuaries and partner shelters.

The "sentience" corner