Let’s start with some great news: This week, Washington State’s ban on traveling shows with elephants, big cats, non-human primates, bears and hybrids of these species, passed with a massive majority – 65-32! The ban now moves to the Governor’s desk for signature.

Thanks to relentless campaigning, we are continuing to make progress. More than 50 countries now have bans and where possible, wherever we can, ADI will be there to empty the cages – saving the animals and maintaining the momentum for others to pass bans.

This is why our latest rescue of Goliath and Coralie in France is so important.

France, which, when we started with the first undercover investigations had one of the largest and most established circus industries in the world, recently passed their law phasing out wild animals in traveling circuses by 2028. The phaseout started with regulations to end breeding and set welfare standards.

With your support, ADI can help make this ban work as we have done elsewhere, by rehoming the animals – starting with two wonderful lions Coralie (13 years) and Goliath (11 years).

These circus survivors have been removed from Cirque Idéal and are being cared for in the Tonga Terre D’Accueil, a temporary holding facility near Lyon, which takes in confiscated animals until a permanent home is found. With your help, that will be the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, South Africa for Goliath and Coralie.

Goliath and Coralie endured their first decade in a tiny stinking, circus cage. If we all pull together, their next decade will be in the African sunshine, in their native homeland.

Huge thanks to everyone who responded to my call for help last week. We have raised enough for their new travel crates, and these are being built in France. I am also pleased to confirm that our permits to move the lions have been approved by France and South Africa.

And we are making their space at ADIWS at top speed! We need to move around some residents to make Goliath and Coralie’s patch of African heaven:

First up: The new Alexis Habitat, we are building the house, fitting out the internal rooms, building the outside viewing platforms with dens underneath, and pools, for Sasha tiger. She can then move closer to her relatives – Sun, Moon, Luna, Lupe, Max and Stripes.

Second: Sasha’s old habitat will be converted into a quarantine unit to receive Goliath and Coralie. They will have 2.5 acres with pools and viewing platforms and dens, and the bottom half of the habitat (which they will access after initial quarantine and orientation) has a natural spring running through it. Our current quarantine units are still occupied by the Kuwait lions, who need to stay in there for a while longer. All of this is a major expansion for the ADIWS, but if we are to save more animals, we must press on.

That said, for Goliath and Coralie, we have a way to go yet. I am speaking to cargo companies about flights, we will need road transport and handling arrangements at the airports. However, as you know, the biggest challenge is raising enough funds to cover food, care, and veterinary treatment for the rest of their lives.

I love how these animals rescued from such deprivation, suffering and abuse, embrace life when given the chance. As Tim and I watched them in France, Goliath rolled on his rubber bed with his legs in the air, like a kitten. Coralie joined in, they played with bowling skittles, climbed on logs, enjoyed the fun in life they had missed for the first half of their lives.

Why not adopt these fun loving lions today and follow their incredible journey over the coming years? UK store I US store

Can you imagine how much they will enjoy the acres of space and treats and surprises that ADIWS has to offer? The small wildlife running across their habitat – ground squirrels, rabbits, hares, mongooses, birds flying overhead, the sounds of the wild. You can make that happen for them.

This rescue is a huge step towards eliminating wild animals in circuses in France, forever. We can show government officials that circus bans can be a success. If this move is successful, we hope to help with more animals from the circuses, emptying more cages and bringing the day closer when no animals will suffer like Coralie and Goliath, ever again.

I do hope that you can help with this rescue, for Coralie and Goliath AND the animals still in the circuses, whose chance to be free has not yet come. Let’s empty these cages ahead of the 2028 deadline.

Donate UK (£, Euros, Rand) I Donate US $, CA $