A Wildlife Article from All-Creatures.org

Celebrating 20 years of Animal Defenders International

From ADI Animal Defenders International
March 2024

We have exposed the animal labs and their dealers, the circuses, wildlife markets, fur industry, and the cruelty behind the Hollywood animal suppliers. We’ve secured important protection for animals at local, state, and national levels, including bans on animals in circuses (with US federal bill still to come), cosmetics tests on animals, and pressure to close fur farms and laboratory animal trade. We work on the frontline emptying entire countries of circus animals and founded the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa, a place of loving kindness for our circus survivors. We have shared the lives of some incredible animals like Cholita, Pepe, Mufasa, Leo and many, many more.

Today marks two decades since ADI opened our office in the US, first in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles. The same year we opened our Latin America office, and both have worked closely ever since, launching investigations to expose captive animal suffering, campaigning for change, securing laws and rescuing hundreds of animals.

We have exposed the animal labs and their dealers, the circuses, wildlife markets, fur industry, and the cruelty behind the Hollywood animal suppliers. We’ve secured important protection for animals at local, state, and national levels, including bans on animals in circuses (with US federal bill still to come), cosmetics tests on animals, and pressure to close fur farms and laboratory animal trade. We work on the frontline emptying entire countries of circus animals and founded the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa, a place of loving kindness for our circus survivors. We have shared the lives of some incredible animals like Cholita, Pepe, Mufasa, Leo and many, many more.

Stop Circus Suffering USA
Bob Barker, a huge friend of ADI through two decades, spoke movingly in Congress as we introduced the first bill to ban the use of exotic animals in traveling circuses. We continue to press for the bill with each new Congress, gathering support. Support TEAPSPA In the meantime, New Jersey, Hawaii, California, Colorado have passed state bans, along with 113 local jurisdictions.

Giving animals a voice
Protests, then bans on animal acts swept through Latin America following our 2007 undercover investigation, which sent shockwaves across the continent. Our investigators were embedded for almost two years, going from circus to circus, country to country, exposing horrific abuse. Circus bans followed in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, and Guatemala (and the campaign is still rolling!).

Within three years we were emptying the circus cages in country after country!

Emptying the cages
In Bolivia, one circus surrendered their animals, the rest defied the law. What happened next would determine the fate of circus animals across the continent. Could the law be enforced? We set up a temporary holding unit in a country with no facilities for animal rescue, then tracked down and raided every circus. This was Operation Lion Ark. Every animal was saved including 29 lions, who were airlifted to the US. This was the story in the movie Lion Ark, which enjoyed much success on the international film festival circuit (see video). And the rescues would get bigger and bigger!

Hundreds of animals saved and relocated
Following Bolivia, ADI launched huge nationwide rescues in Peru, Colombia and Guatemala. Circus cages were emptied, hundreds of animals saved, and homes built for them in sanctuaries around the world. Over 50 monkeys, coatis and kinkajous went by plane and boat back to homes in the Amazon forest, 33 lions made a record-breaking flight home to Africa, then 17 tigers and lions flew to Africa from Guatemala.

Taking on Hollywood animal abuse
ADI’s undercover investigators also blew the lid off elephant training for Hollywood movies like Water for Elephants. Our harrowing footage inside Have Trunk Will Travel revealed screaming elephants being beaten, hooked and electric shocked. Thanks to our No Fun for Elephants campaign and video narrated by Bob Barker, the company’s rides were closed down throughout California and movie makers have moved increasingly away from performing animals. The campaign continues!

Lion Ark: hear freedom roar!
Our film Lion Ark about the Bolivia rescue opened the public’s eyes to the hidden suffering of circus animals, and the work of ADI. Hundreds attended sell-out screenings of the premiere, introduced by CSI star Jorja Fox at the California Film Institute’s Mill Valley Film Festival. The film won 11 film festival awards and an NAACP nomination. The film screened in cinemas in the US, UK, and Bolivia, before being broadcast in over 40 countries with the Spanish version, Arca de Leones, broadcast extensively through Latin America on Animal Planet and Discovery. Now screening on the free animal rights network, UnChainedTV.

Fighting for the bulls
In Peru and Colombia, we have taken on the cruel bull running and bullfighting events, exposing the suffering and calling for bans. This month, the latest bill seeking to ban bullfighting in Colombia passed the third of four debates in Congress – leaving just one vital vote to go!

Ending lab animal suffering
ADI exposed the horrors monkeys suffer at the hands of dealers supplying monkeys to US laboratories – including those snatched from the wild. At Biodia in Mauritius, we exposed babies torn from their mothers, pinned down, and tattooed. Our campaign and report on space experiments on monkeys featuring information from a NASA whistleblower, saw NASA announce a halt to planned monkey tests the following year. In Colombia, thousands of monkeys were saved after ADI investigators infiltrated the gangs trapping owl monkeys for malaria experiments.

Banning cosmetics tests on animals
Following success in the UK and EU, we continue to press for a federal ban on cosmetics tests on animals. In the meantime, progress has been made in California, Nevada, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, Maine, Hawaii, New Jersey, Louisiana, New York, and Oregon. A breakthrough victory securing a ban in Colombia was followed last year by a ban in Chile. If you live in the US, take action here.

Ending the cycle of suffering
A huge victory in 2022 saw the US Big Cat Public Safety Act end breeding of big cats for petting, backyard zoos, and the pet trade. ADI provided written testimony to the House and Senate and thousands of our supporters lobbied their members of Congress.

ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, South Africa
The incredible worldwide success of ADI’s Stop Circus Suffering campaign has persuaded governments to ban animal circuses and in some countries without rescue facilities, this saw ADI on the ground undertaking large-scale rescues. Initially, we were investing heavily in several sanctuaries (and still support care of survivors in some), but as we emptied more and more cages, it was clear we needed our own sanctuary, capable of taking large numbers of animals all at once.

Supporters across the US and worldwide made the dream of the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary come true. Huge natural habitats of several acres have given the lions and tigers rescued from the circuses of Peru (like Mahla seen in the video), Colombia and Guatemala a life as close to nature as possible.

Still transforming lives
Ruben is the most recent arrival at the ADIWS. We’ve transformed his life experience and created awareness worldwide, of the immense suffering and cruelty involved when intelligent, emotional, communicative, social animals are kept in isolation and captivity. Lonely Ruben had stopped roaring, but since arriving at ADIWS, he has regained his deep, soulful roar. It is a joy to hear. Ruben will soon be joined by the six lions from the illegal pet trade in Kuwait, as we change their lives and help end the illegal wildlife pet trade. Some of them will be next door to Ruben, his first close neighbors for over six years!

We hope you enjoyed our brief review of the past 20 years of relentless campaigning and saving animals in the US and Latin America. We’ve faced some huge extra challenges – we endured the financial battering of the pandemic just as we completed the Guatemala rescue – but some victories have changed the world forever for animals.

Thank you for being a part of our journey.

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