Circus Giovanni Althoff
The Giovanni Althoff circus was a well-known circus and for years was one of the leading German circus companies alongside Krone and Sarrasani . In the recent past, the circus was mainly noticed by the public through violations of animal welfare. The owner Giovanni is the son of Carl Althoff and thus belongs to the Althoff circus dynasty .
The Giovanni Althoff Circus offered a traditional circus program with artists and animal training. At its heyday around 1985, the circus still had 21 elephants . The population was reduced to 9 animals by 1997. At the same time, the circus had to deal with allegations of cruelty to animals . These allegations mainly concerned the keeping of the elephants, the nine Bengal tigers and the horses. The circus is repeatedly deprived of the power of disposal over individual animals by various authorities, but the animals remain in the circus for different reasons.
In 2004 a criminal complaint was filed with the Hanau Regional Court for violating the Animal Welfare Act and for other offenses. At this point the financial situation was also very bad. The Osnabrück District Court found that insolvency proceedings could not be carried out due to lack of assets. The debt to the public sector and suppliers was more than 330,000 euros. Only a short time later, the travel trade card was withdrawn, so that the circus was no longer entitled to performances. Searches and seizures followed.
The remaining four elephants were brought to France in November 2005 by the circus in a night operation without informing the German authorities. They weren't found there until a month later. In mid-2006, the final hearing before the Hanau Regional Court took place, during which the defendants were sentenced to a total fine of 11,700 euros for violating the Animal Welfare Act with five animals. The remaining animals are auctioned in an emergency sale and the money is retained to cover the costs of the process.
In 2008 a new start was attempted under the name "Circus Althoff - The Original".
In 2010 the Circus Giovanni Althoff and the Circus Mustang teamed up. Under the name "Circus Althoff - Das Original", which has been in use since 2008, they went on tour again in Germany. In addition to artistic demonstrations, the program again included animal demonstrations, including the elephants of the Mustang Circus. This cooperation was terminated again in mid-2010. The current status of Circus Althoff is unknown.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b peta: Chronicle of the Circus Giovanni Althoff ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. visited on January 20, 2013.
- ↑ Circus Giovanni Althoff stands in front of the Aus Hamburger Abendblatt from July 20, 2004
- ↑ hr online: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Circus director Althoff sentenced to visit on January 21, 2009.
