THE BATTLE TO EMPTY PERU’S ANIMAL CIRCUSES TURNS IN OUR FAVOR. Ten years ago today, ADI was nine days into the historic Operation Spirit of Freedom to enforce animal circus bans in Peru and Colombia. We had raided three circuses but were meeting fierce opposition and being blocked from removing all the animals. The whole momentum of the rescue would change on this day thanks to a lion called SMITH! That’s him in the first pic at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, South Africa and here’s how he changed everything and led to over 100 animals being saved.

Four days earlier, ADI had rescued three lions from Circo Monaco de Fieras in Cusco – Rey, Amazonas and Kiara. But we had been blocked from saving Smith, Kiara’s cubs Scarc and Mahla, and a spider monkey called Pepe, and the circus was defiantly continuing with business as usual.

Smith was a huge, castrated lion (hence no mane) and his act was to perform some tricks and then an audience member would be called in for Smith to jump over – a stupid and irresponsible act. On August 15, 2014, a school teacher was invited into the ring from the audience. She stood beneath Smith who was on a high pedestal. He looked down, then pounced, dragging her around the ring as the trainer repeatedly beat Smith with a metal bar. The thick collar of her winter coat saved her.

A local TV station filmed the incident and it exploded worldwide. There was a petition for Smith to be killed, while ADI was on TV and met with the Minister pleading for Smith to be saved. Smith was the only one in the ring that was not there voluntarily. It would be a disgrace if he was killed for just behaving naturally. By the weekend, the ADI team was back in Cusco, and on August 22, we returned to the circus with armed police to rescue Smith, Mahla, Scarc and Pepe. Back in Lima, there were joyous scenes as cubs Mahla and Scarc were reunited with mom Kiara.

Although it would be many more months before we completed emptying the circuses and relocating all of the animals, this was a pivotal day, not just for Peru but key to securing more bans across Latin America and a similar mission in Guatemala.

The story of these two raids is told in Animal Planet’s Dodo Heroes series 1 “Jan and Tim’s Greatest Show on Earth” available on Amazon Prime. Amazon US | Amazon UK

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