Nine leading travel companies are continuing to promote and sell tickets to inhumane animal encounters, according to a new report from World Animal Protection (WAP).
The “The Real Responsible Traveller” report focuses on travel businesses that advertise and sell packages that reportedly “are still exploiting wildlife for profit,” even though 84 percent of UK citizens believe tour operators should not promote encounters that cause wild animals suffering, according to WAP.
Cruel packages sold under the guise of “entertainment” as examined by WAP featured elephant rides, swimming with captive dolphins, primate interactions, and big cat petting.
Companies are severely failing wild animals by promoting these harmful packages, which force elephants, tigers, and monkeys to interact with tourists in “experiences” that are stressful and unnatural to them, WAP said.
For the tourism industry, intelligent dolphins and tigers are typically torn from their mothers at an early age, causing a tremendous amount of distress, WAP noted. Primates are commonly confined to small, barren cages, and elephants are subjected to violent “training” tactics.
The new report also highlighted travel companies taking a stance against animal suffering, such as Airbnb and Booking.com. Expedia also was listed as making improvements for ending sales to captive dolphin encounters in 2021.
Lady Freethinker would like to remind our readers that animals suffer when they’re forced to perform for “entertainment” or when they’re kept captive for cruel tourist encounters and “attractions.” We encourage you to never buy a ticket to a show, event, or “experience” that exploits animals and also to boycott travel companies that sell them, too.
By doing so you can help save lives and put an end to this cruel industry.
