For several years now, circuses with wild animals have been “persona non grata” in the territory of the city of Lille. A ban which actually dates back to 2019, after the city council adopted a wish, presented by environmentalists, asking for the “gradual withdrawal of wild animals in circuses. “Except that among the numbers on the program of the Great Lille Circus Festival, which has just settled for a month in the heart of the city, the animalist party has found a bug.
Of course, the show proposed by Thierry Fééry, patron of the Great Lille Circus Festival, will exhibit neither lions, elephants, bears, nor any of the big wild beasts that we used to find in circuses. There is indeed a number with horses and another with dogs, but it is not really that which poses a problem for the municipal environmentalist opposition and the militants of the animalist party. The concern comes from the show of the Italian artist Alessio Fochesatowhich presents “free and disciplined macaws”, as the circus program announces.
Martine Aubry asks for the respect of the wish of the city
“The treatment that these animals undergo, training, transport, cramped enclosures, is not likely to meet their basic needs which require stability and calm”, denounce animal defenders, reminding the city of the famous wish adopted in 2019 A reminder that the opposition elected representatives of the Lille verte group did not hesitate to relay, deploring that the city promotes “events which reinforce the exploitation of animals by human beings”.
Except that the town hall, for its part, ensures that it was not aware of the presence of macaws in a number of the Great Lille Circus Festival. In a letter addressed, Wednesday, to the owner of the circus, that 20 minutes was able to consult, Martine Aubry also deplores “the absence of mention of the presence of macaws in response to the call for expressions of interest conditioning the allocation of the public domain to the circus activity. “In this same letter, she also asks Thierry Fééry to respect the wish of the city, in other words, to deprogram the number featuring parrots.
At the time of writing these lines, Alessio Fochesato’s number has not been canceled and the performances have started: “for the moment, the mail does not ask me to suspend, it [le numéro] is therefore on the program, ”confirms 20 Minutes Thierry Fééry. This is the reason why PAZ and the animalist party have maintained the demonstration planned for Sunday in front of the circus.