Less than a month after the release of confinement in 2020, the affair hit the headlines.
Alerted by the animal rights association One Voice, the gendarmes, at the request of the French Biodiversity Office, arrived at the Cirque de Paris, installed in Vironvay (Eure) for several weeks to seize one of the five lions owned by trainer Steve Gougeon.
Jon's condition is chilling: emaciated, covered in numerous wounds, without a claw and ground teeth, he only weighs a hundred kilos when he should weigh twice as much.
And yet, at the time, if the animal was taken from its owner, it was because the latter only had an authorization to keep four of them.
Also read: Wild animals in circuses: the ban provided for by law will not come into force until 2028
But a few weeks later, the other felines, lionesses in this case, were also confiscated, this time in Pas-de-Calais where the circus had traveled.
Entrusted to One Voice, they will be saved, even if Jon has since died, on January 29, 2022, just one year before the opening of his trainer's trial before the Évreux judicial court which took place this Monday.
Prosecuted in particular for "mistreatment of an animal placed in his custody" and "irregular operation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals", Steve Gougeon, whose "charged judicial past" was noted by the president of the court during the hearing, been found guilty.
He was sentenced Monday to two months' suspended prison sentence, five fines of €150 (one per animal) and several thousand euros in legal costs and moral damage for the two associations which had become civil parties.
In addition, he was banned from carrying out any activity related to the keeping of animals for 5 years: the definitive confiscation of the lionesses still alive – Céleste, Patty, Hannah and Marli are housed in the Italian One Voice shelter in Tuscany - was also pronounced.
Finally, and this is far from negligible, the trainer will have to reimburse the costs incurred by the One Voice association for the care provided to the animals, i.e. a total bill of €193,856.
“We are relieved by this judgment,” assures Muriel Arnal, founder and president of One Voice: “That he was found guilty and that he could no longer keep animals was the minimum!
» Same opinion from Stéphane Lamart, president of the other association involved in the procedure: “In 2028, circuses will no longer be able to keep wild animals.
His ban on practicing is therefore, so to speak, definitive.”
Faced with the convictions, and in particular the sums claimed, the trainer's lawyer reserves the right to appeal.
He has ten days to do so.