Last Updated: 7/20/2020 | July 20th, 2020
Dear Travelers,
While I was in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, eating kottu (a traditional spicy stir-fry of shredded roti bread with vegetables and chicken), I noticed a scene outside the restaurant that I’ve witnessed too many times before: tourists riding an elephant. I sighed in despair. That animal they were so happily riding was mostly likely abused – and they either had no idea or they simply didn’t care.
I understand their desire to ride that elephant.
Most people love animals.
We all love seeing and interacting with animals when we travel. It feels exotic.
It’s why we go on safaris, check out zoos and tiger temples, and sign up for elephant rides, go gorilla trekking, take lion walks, and everything in between.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to be that close to so many stunning creatures? animals are cute and (mostly) furry.
But I have some bad news: almost all animal-based tourism in the world is abusive and detrimental to the animals.
Animals are usually kept in horrible conditions and trained and managed by inexperienced staff. These aren’t scientific research centers you are visiting. The places you check out exist for your entertainment and money — not for the animal’s welfare.
Now, I’m no saint. I’ve done bad things in the past. I’ve ridden elephants, been to the tiger temple, visited Seaworld, and swam with dolphins. I’ve been guilty of patronizing the same places I am now telling you to avoid.
But the longer I work in the travel industry and the more learn about animal tourism, the more I’ve 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.
Chances are you’re like me and see these activities and think “Animals! Jippi!”
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.
But that is not the case at all.
By visiting these institutions, we unintentionally become party to the system and perpetuate the cycle of abuse.
We don’t do it because we’re bad people. It’s simply ignorance of conditions that keeps us from changing the system.
I know we all want to believe that the place we’ve chosen to check out is harmless. We’ve done some research and read some positives reviews that said how kind and valuable the staff was to the animals. It looked safe.
But who would admit to animal abuse? who would leave put that in the open?
All of it is hidden from view.
No organization is going to say, “Yeah, we starve the elephants. Kom inn!”
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’t professionally trained staff or biologists — they are poor, underskilled workers who are just trying to make money to feed their family.
Look at the elephant who killed someone in Ko Samui. He was working in unbearable heat and shouldn’t have been carrying riders, but the trainer was a poor Burmese immigrant who was in Thailand just trying to feed his family.
If you look at the trainers interviewed in The Cove or Blackfish, you see the same thing: trainers with good intentions but also a boss or corporation focused on profits instead of animal welfare.
For years, animal rights and environmental groups railed against the Tiger temple in Thailand. Journalists reported abuses. Yet tourists didn’t believe the news and still flocked to the temple. “They’re monks. how could they hurt the tigers?”
Yet, after outside pressure grew too great, the government raided the temple and — shocker! — found a host of abused and dead tigers, and evidence of illegal breeding and animal smuggling. but even though this tiger temple proved to be involved in the illegal animal trade, check outs to other tiger temples haven’t stopped.
The truth is there is a lot of animal abuse in the travel industry.
And it should be avoided. The chance of error is far too great. The problem is more widespread than you think.
Elephant rides, tiger temples, lion walks, monkey shows, orangutan fights (yes, that really exists), dolphinariums, Seaworld, circuses — anything where the animal is there exclusively for your entertainment should be avoided!
Consider the smell test for any animal exhibit: if it seems like this shouldn’t exist or you find it weird that such a large animal would be so docile, something is probably not right and you shouldn’t be supporting such practices with your money.
We can still get that memorable moment with an animal while making sure we are doing good.
Take elephant riding in Thailand. It’s been popular for decades and is still a big draw for tourists, but places like Elephant Nature Park are changing theSystem ved å tilby et fristed for misbrukte elefanter, fremme utdanning for besøkende og la turister oppleve elefantene på en uheldig måte.
Og når du ser hvor mye penger Elephant Nature Park tjener, begynner andre treningsparker sakte å endre hvordan de gjør ting, og jobber med Elephant Nature Park for å ta i bruk mindre skadelig praksis.
Det er nå parker i Phuket, Kambodsja og Surin.
Det er ikke å si at denne endringen er utbredt, men siden det er penger som foreviger systemet, jo flere stemmer med dollarene sine, desto flere vil dyreparker endre retningslinjene. Elephant Nature Park ville ikke eksistere uten turister på besøk, og andre parker ville ikke lagt merke til om det ikke var for populariteten til deres praksis.
Det er viktig at vi gjør vår due diligence og stemmer med våre dollar for å støtte organisasjoner som gjør det riktig av dyr.
Hvis vi står sammen og sier “vi vil ha noe annet”, kan vi få det til å skje. Tiger -tempelet ble endelig lagt ned, SeaWorld har sagt ja til å stoppe det fangede avlsprogrammet, og steder som ligner på Elephant Nature Park, spredes over hele Sørøst -Asia.
Disse endringene har skjedd på grunn av offentlig rop og endret forbrukeratferd som påvirker det virksomhetene bryr seg mest om: deres bunnlinje.
Det handler om utdanning. Hvis vi som reisende lærer om disse forholdene på forhånd, hvis vi snakker om dem mer, kan vi gjøre en endring.
Heldigvis er det en rekke online ressurser og grupper der ute som kan hjelpe deg med å finne etiske dyreopplevelser:
Spana
Går det å gå med løver god bevaring? Sannsynligvis ikke
Redd elefant
Gjør og ikke er av dyreturisme i Sør -Afrika
Born Free Foundation
Internasjonalt fond for dyrevelferd
Verdens dyrebeskyttelse
Jeg vet at du vil se eller kommunisere med noen dyr når du reiser, og det er ingenting galt med det – la oss bare gjøre det på en ansvarlig måte. La oss skape positive dyreopplevelser som belønner bevaring og utdanning, ikke utnyttelse.
Tross alt, vil du ikke komme tilbake en dag og dele med vennene dine eller familien den fantastiske opplevelsen du hadde? Den beste måten å gi opplevelsen videre til andre er å sikre at dyrene overlever og trives.
Vennlig hilsen,
Matt
Hvordan reise verden rundt på $ 50 om dagen
My New York Times bestselgende pocketbok guide til verdensreiser vil lære deg hvordan du kan mestre kunsten å reise slik at du kommer fra allfarvei, sparer penger og har en dypere reiseopplevelse. Det er din A til Z -planleggingsguide at BBC kalte “Bibelen for budsjettreisende.”
Klikk her for å lære mer og begynn å lese den i dag!
Bestill turen: Logistiske tips og triks
Bestill flyet ditt
Finn en rimelig flytur ved å bruke Skyscanner. Det er min favoritt søkemotor fordi den søker på nettsteder og flyselskaper over hele kloden, slik at du alltid vet at ingen stein er igjen.
Bestill innkvarteringen din
Du kan bestille vandrerhjemmet ditt med Hostelworld. Hvis du vil bo et annet sted enn et herberge, kan du bruke booking.com, da de konsekvent returnerer de billigste prisene for gjestehus og hotell.
Ikke glem reiseforsikring
Reiseforsikring vil beskytte deg mot sykdom, skade, tyveri og kanselleringer. Det er omfattende beskyttelse i tilfelle noe går galt. Jeg drar aldri på tur uten det, da jeg har måttet bruke den mange ganger i fortiden. Mine favorittbedrifter som tilbyr den beste servicen og verdien er:
Safetywing (best for alle)
Forsikre turen min (for de over 70)
MedJet (for ytterligere evakueringsdekning)
Klar til å bestille turen?
Sjekk ut ressurssiden min for de beste selskapene å bruke når du reiser. Jeg lister opp alle de jeg bruker når jeg reiser. De er de beste i klassen, og du kan ikke gå galt ved å bruke dem på turen.