"If this is not mistreating, what more is necessary to prove soω"

One colleague of yours, Judge Gustavo Alexandre da Câmara Leal Belluzzo, signed last year a sentence against the activities developed by the circus Le Cirque in São Paulo, prohibiting the circus of using the animals on performances on the state territory. Apart from that, other four states – Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco and Paraíba and more than 50 cities have already local laws that prohibits the use of animals in circus. The operation "Noah\’s Ark", that took place this week in Brasilia, is emblematic, because a federal law that intends to put an end on the use of animals is circus is about to be approved at the National Congress. On the last 8 years, GAP Project rescued more than 40 chimpanzees from circus. The ones who were seized from Le Cirque were among the last ones still found in circus nowadays. According to the circus\’ owners, the chimpanzees confiscated were "part of the family". But they are castrated and suffered mutilations to become "less violent" – they had all their teeth pulled out. If this is not mistreating, what more is necessary to prove soω The company that sold one of the chimps to the circus, Zoobotânica Marco Schwarz, from Paraná, informed in public that the animal was delivered in good health conditions to the circus. To sentence these beings, who share 99,4% of our DNA and the same blood, to come back to the terrible 4 cubic meters cage, without putting the feet on the ground, seeing the sun or enjoying the life with their partners, is a decision that no sensitive men, as a Judge, can make.

DIRECTOR OF GAP PROJECT BRAZIL