{"id":43816,"date":"2016-10-09T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomadicmatt.com\/?p=43816"},"modified":"2025-01-22T03:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T08:40:14","slug":"animal-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomadicmatt.com\/travel-blogs\/animal-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Help Stop Animal Abuse in the Tourism Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

Dear Travelers,<\/p>\n

While I was in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka<\/a>, eating kottu<\/em> (a traditional spicy stir-fry of shredded roti bread with vegetables and chicken), I noticed a scene outside the restaurant that I\u2019ve witnessed too many times before: tourists riding an elephant. <\/p>\n

I sighed in despair. That animal they were so happily riding was mostly likely abused \u2014 and they either had no idea or they simply didn’t care.<\/p>\n

Of course, I understand their desire to ride that elephant. Most people love<\/em> animals \u2014 myself included.<\/p>\n

We all love seeing and interacting with animals when we travel. It feels exotic. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s why we go on safaris<\/a>, visit zoos and tiger temples, and sign up for elephant rides, go gorilla trekking<\/a>, take lion walks, and everything in between.<\/p>\n

I mean, who wouldn\u2019t want to be that close to so many beautiful creatures? Animals are cute and (mostly) furry.<\/p>\n

But I have some bad news: almost all animal-based tourism in the world is abusive and detrimental to the animals.<\/p>\n

Animals are typically kept in horrible conditions and trained and managed by inexperienced staff. These aren\u2019t scientific research centers you are visiting. The places you visit exist for your entertainment and money \u2014 not for the animal\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m no saint. I\u2019ve been guilty of patronizing the same places I am now telling you to avoid. I\u2019ve ridden elephants, been to the Tiger Temple, visited Seaworld, and swam with dolphins. <\/p>\n

But the longer I work in the travel industry and the more I learn about animal tourism, the more I\u2019ve come to realize just how messed up, flawed, and abusive it is. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have never done those activities.<\/p>\n

Chances are you’re like me and see these activities and think: “Animals! Yay!” <\/p>\n

There’s a false belief that these activities must have some regulations and are safe for animals. I mean, that’s what I thought. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.<\/p>\n

But that is not the case at all. <\/p>\n

By visiting these institutions, we unintentionally become party to the system and perpetuate the cycle of abuse.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t do it because we’re bad people. It\u2019s simply ignorance of conditions that keeps us from changing the system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I know we all want to believe that the place we\u2019ve chosen to visit is harmless. We\u2019ve done some research and read some positive reviews that said how kind and helpful the staff was to the animals. It looked safe.<\/p>\n

But who would admit to animal abuse? Who would leave put that in the open?<\/p>\n

All of it is hidden from view.<\/p>\n

No organization is going to say, \u201cYeah, we starve the elephants. Come on in!\u201d<\/p>\n

But the cruel and horrific training process that elephants must undergo in order to accept being ridden, on top of the permanent spinal injuries sustained from carrying people all day, means that riding elephants is always unethical no matter the circumstances. <\/p>\n

Plus, elephants are expensive to keep and, when saddled with debt, many trainers simply push their elephants to their limits in order to make as much money as possible. And, while the trainers may have their hearts in the right place, in many developing countries these aren\u2019t professionally trained staff or biologists \u2014 they are poor, underskilled workers who are just trying to make money to feed their families.<\/p>\n

Look at the elephant who killed someone in Ko Samui<\/a>. He was working in unbearable heat and shouldn\u2019t have been carrying riders, but the trainer was a poor Burmese immigrant who was in Thailand<\/a> just trying to feed his family. <\/p>\n

And it’s still happening in 2025. Yet another traveler was killed in Thailand by an elephant that was stressed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you look at the trainers interviewed in The Cove<\/em> (a documentary on dolphin hunting in Japan) or Blackfish<\/em> (a documentary on Seaworld), you see the same thing: trainers with good intentions but also a boss or corporation focused on profits instead of animal welfare.<\/p>\n

For years, animal rights and environmental groups railed against the Tiger Temple in Thailand, a Buddhist temple that claimed to be a tiger sanctuary but was in fact mistreating these endangered animals on a large scale. For years, journalists reported abuses. Yet tourists didn\u2019t believe the news and still flocked to the temple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re monks. How could they hurt the tigers?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, after outside pressure grew too great, the government raided the temple and \u2014 shocker! \u2014 found a host of abused and dead tigers (including the frozen bodies of forty tiger cubs) as well as evidence of illegal breeding and animal smuggling. But even though this tiger temple proved to be involved in the illegal animal trade, visits to other tiger temples haven\u2019t stopped<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The truth is there is a lot of animal abuse in the travel industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it should be avoided. The chance of error is far too great. The problem is more widespread than you think.<\/p>\n

Elephant rides, tiger temples, lion walks, monkey shows, orangutan fights (yes, that really exists), dolphinariums, Seaworld, circuses \u2014 anything where the animal is there exclusively for your entertainment should be avoided.<\/p>\n

Consider the smell test for any animal exhibit: if it seems like this shouldn\u2019t exist or you find it weird that such a large animal would be so docile, something is probably not right and you shouldn\u2019t be supporting such practices with your money.<\/p>\n

We can still get that memorable moment with an animal while making sure we are doing good. <\/p>\n

Take elephant riding in Thailand<\/a>. It\u2019s been popular for decades and is still a big draw for tourists, but places like Elephant Nature Park<\/a> are changing the system by providing a sanctuary for abused elephants, promoting education for visitors, and allowing tourists to experience the elephants in an unharmful way.<\/p>\n

And, seeing how much money Elephant Nature Park<\/a> is making, other training parks are slowly beginning to change how they do things, working with Elephant Nature Park to adopt less harmful practices. <\/p>\n

There are now parks in Phuket<\/a>, Cambodia<\/a>, and Surin.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say this change is widespread, but since it\u2019s money that perpetuates the system, the more people vote with their dollars, the more animal parks will change their policies. Elephant Nature Park wouldn\u2019t exist without tourists visiting, and other parks wouldn\u2019t be taking notice if it weren\u2019t for the popularity of their practices.<\/p>\n

We must do our due diligence and vote with our dollars to support organizations that are doing right by animals. <\/p>\n

If we stand together and say \u201cwe want something else,\u201d we can make it happen. The tiger temple was finally shut down, Seaworld has agreed to stop its captive breeding program, and places similar to the Elephant Nature Park are proliferating all over Southeast Asia<\/a>. <\/p>\n

These changes have come about because of public outcry and changed consumer behavior that affects what businesses care most about: their bottom line.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about education<\/a>. If we as travelers learn about these conditions beforehand, if we talk about them more, we can make a change. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are a number of online resources and groups out there that can help you find ethical animal experiences:<\/p>\n

Organizations:<\/strong><\/p>\n