Questioned by animal protection associations, the deputies of the mayor Anne Hidalgo in charge of the animal condition, Christophe Najdovski, and of tourism, Frédéric Hocquard, ask the cabaret “to no longer use wild animals” in its shows, in a letter dated Friday.
At the Paris Council on Thursday, the elected official of the environmental group Douchka Markovic asked the management of the Moulin Rouge to “deprogram this show”, in which a dancer dives into a transparent pool and manipulates large pythons, which try to maintain their heads. out of water. “The two species used in this part of the show, a molurus python and a reticulated python from Southeast Asia, are protected species and listed on the international wildlife trade lists,” wrote in a letter. two assistants.
These two snakes are terrestrial and “even if they are good swimmers, this staging does not take into account the natural behavior of these species which remain wild animals, even captive”, they added. At the end of December, the cabaret had refuted the accusation of animal abuse. According to the cabaret, these reptiles are “a species of swimming python that is as much made to live in an aquatic environment as in a terrestrial environment”.
The Paris City Hall, which adopted an “animal welfare charter” in July 2021, banned wild animals in shows produced in places belonging to it, which is not the case at the Moulin Rouge, a private place. . However, in May 2022, the town hall revealed the presence of a marabout, a wild bird, in a play produced in an establishment belonging to it. According to her, the theater had pledged not to contravene the charter in the future.