Have you ever inflicted animal cruelty? Your first instinct is probably to say "never". You may even be offended by the question. After all you're a good person. You love animals. But it's that love and desire to interact with animals that can unintentionally hurt them, especially when traveling.
Read on For 7 Ways That Travellers Unintentionally Commit Animal Cruelty
1)Tiger Selfies - Or a Selfie With Any Type of Animal That You'd be Afraid to Encounter in the Wild
Imagine that you are walking alone in the dense jungle of India. You hear a branch snap. Then a low guttural growl. You freeze. The noise stops. You silently take a step forward. Your heart is pounding so hard you think it may jump out of your chest. The hair on your arms is standing straight up. That's a natural reaction if you think you're being stalked by a tiger.
What's not natural is to hug a tame tiger who's on a short chain. The only reason the tiger isn't tearing into you with its 3 inch long canines is that it's drugged. Furthermore, if a tiger or any animal has to be on a leash, it's to prevent them from escaping - i.e. they're not there voluntarily.
The infamous Tiger Temple in Thailand made international headlines when 40 dead tiger cubs were discovered in the freezer. In addition to the mistreatment and cruelty to tigers, they were closed down due to illegal wildlife trafficking and the trafficking of tiger parts. You can read more about it here. While it's the most famous, there are approximately 200 tiger farms in Asia.
Tiger farms have nothing to do with conservation-they just bring extreme suffering to these wild animals while living in appalling conditions," Dr. Jan Schmidt-Burbach, a senior wildlife advisor at World Animal Protection.
Furthermore, a study by WWF-UK reveals 76% of respondents weren't aware of tiger farm practices in Asia, which are fuelling the illegal wildlife trade and jeopardizing the recovery of wild tigers across the continent. However, upon learning about tiger farms, 86% want to see these facilities closed urgently.
Most travelers aren't bad people (well excluding the above 14%) but uninformed. Tiger farms are notorious for greenwashing tourists with false conservation claims to justify their existence. These tiger farms are huge tourist attractions. They're run as a business. Without tourists, they wouldn't exist. By visiting a tiger farm you're inflicting cruelty on the individual animal and also contributing to the demise of a highly endangered species.
2. Riding an Elephant
When I lived in Thailand 20 years ago I rode an elephant. Back then it wasn't considered cruel. I remember asking the Mahout (a person who rides with and tends to the elephants) whether it was good for the elephants and assured me that they enjoyed it. He also said the bullhook they used didn't hurt the elephants because they had such thick skin. His explanation didn't sit well with me even back then but I stupidly ignored my gut.
Tourists may think activities like riding an elephant do no harm," he told The Dodo. "But the brutal truth is that breaking these animals' spirits to the point that they allow humans to interact with them involves cruelty at every turn." Dr. Jan Schmidt-Burbach senior wildlife and veterinary adviser at World Animal Protection.
While the elephants may seem to be in good shape, they've been broken since the time they were babies. They're taken from their mothers when they're very young and kept in physical restraints. Food and water are withheld until the animal does what the trainer forces it to do. But the cruelty doesn't end there. The elephants are frequently kept in chains, and unable to interact with each other. The physical and physiological damage done to elephants so that tourists can ride them is awful. Many elephants die of stress and exhaustion of hauling so many tourists each day for long hours. The owners of such places see dollar signs in their eyes choosing not to see the obvious cruelty that they're inflicting.
3. Walking with Lions or Cuddling Lion Cubs
Similar to how you'd feel to encountering a tiger in the wild, you'd probably feel similar goose bumps to encountering a lion in the wild. Lion walking is a relatively new tourist attraction taking place mainly in South Africa.
The cubs are taken from their mothers when they're very young and tourists pay to hold lion cubs in the name of conservation. When they're older they're trained to walk with tourists in the name of rehabilitation and reintroduction. In reality, it's not possible to reintroduce lions into the wild who've spent so much time with people. At best, the lions face a brutal life in captivity kept in too small cages. At worse, they'll be sold to a canned hunting farm where they're familiarity with people makes them an easy target.
They're (the lions) kept in miserable, squalid conditions until they're sold as living targets to a trophy hunter. So any tourist who pays to walk with lions is contributing to the canned lion hunting industry. Chris Mercer, co-founder of the Campaign Against Canned Hunting.
To find out more about the canned lion hunting industry and how travelers are inadvertently contributing to it by caring for lion cubs and walking with lions watch Blood Lions. This documentary f ollows acclaimed environmental journalist and safari operator Ian Michler, and Rick Swazey, an American hunter, on their journey to uncover the realities about the multi-million dollar predator breeding and canned lion hunting industries in South Africa.It is a story that blows the lid off claims made by these operators in attempting to justify what they do.
4. Not Saying Anything When Your Safari Driver Gets to Close to Wildlife
I've done quite a few safaris and have always found that the drivers had a good balance of getting the jeep close enough to get a good look at the animals without getting too close and causing the animal stress. That all changed when I went to Sri Lanka both in Kaudulla National Park with elephants and in Yala National Park with leopards.
In Yala, our guide spotted a leopard in a tree. Word soon got out and other jeep drivers got excited and pulled in closer and closer to give their guests a better viewing opportunity. Our driver kept revving his engine and getting closer. I asked him to back off. Nothing. So I asked again. He seemed really surprised. He was just trying to give me the best photo opp possible. But at the cost of stressing out the leopard. What if the additional stress meant that later that night the leopard was too tired to hunt? We don't know the chain reaction we cause by stressing out wildlife. We were now blocked in by at least 20 other jeeps, all revving their engines.
Finally, having had enough the poor leopard decided to seek out a quieter location away from the shouting tourists and diesel fumes. That meant he had to climb down the tree and cross the road several meters from our jeep! This resulted in a leopard viewing of a lifetime but at a HUGE expense to the leopard who had been sleeping peacefully before we came and wrecked it all. Our guide Jerome sadly shook his head and said; In 10 years it will be virtually impossible to see a leopard in Yala, we will have scared them all away. Unfortunately, I have to agree with him. I loved my time in Yala but was very disappointed to see how little respect some of the drivers had for wildlife by getting too close or revving their engines. And it's not just one or two jeeps, there are dozens of them, resulting in jeep jams along the road. I get that everyone wants to see a leopard, I know I certainly did, but not at the leopard's expense where we are interfering with their natural behaviour. Had all the jeeps stayed a few meters further back on the road, it's likely the leopard would have stayed undisturbed in his tree. Given the choice, I would have gladly sacrificed my photo opportunity for the well-being of the leopard. This lack of respect for wildlife that I saw with several Sri Lankan tour operators is one of the motivating factors for me offering a custom Wildlife and Cultural Highlights of Sri Lanka Tour in cooperation with a tour operator who I traveled with and who is responsible. They're not leopard chasers as they call the other jeeps. They want you to see wildlife but not in a way that hurts wildlife.
The first thing you can do to avoid this from happening is 1) travel with a responsible tour operator, like Monkeys and Mountains Adventure Travel that respects wildlife. 2) If it does happen, ask your guide/driver to back off. If you love animals you don't want to cause them more stress that will have unintended outcomes that you have no way of knowing - starvation, becoming prey, etc. And if you go on a self-drive safari follow these tips from Travel4Wildlife.
5) Volunteering with Wildlife or at an Animal Sanctuary
This is not necessarily a bad thing and your heart is in the right place but you need to do your research. Many organizations will claim conservation, rehabilitation, and reintroduction as their goals but often it's to line the owner's pockets with tourists trusted money.
About 15 years ago I was going to volunteer with lion cubs in South Africa. I mentioned this to a friend that I had living in South Africa. It sounded very suspicious to him as he was South African and had never heard of this. He did some research and came back with the terrible news. The organization that I had planned on volunteering with took on paid volunteers. Then where the cubs were no longer cute and cuddly, they sold the lions to a canned hunting farm. Keep in mind this is before the increased awareness about canned hunting - see above. Needless to say, I didn't volunteer after learning this and was horrified! If I could remember the name of the organization as I would happily share it as a Where NOT to Volunteer but unfortunately I don't remember as it was so long ago.
However, don't let that dissuade you. There are some wonderful wildlife organizations and animal sanctuaries where you can make a positive contribution and they desperately need your help. I volunteered with rescued chimps at MONA, a chimp sanctuary near Girona, Spain. They rescued chimps and macaques that had been kept as pets are performed in circuses. The team was incredibly dedicated, educated and passionate. The chimps and macaques were incredibly well cared for by a vet, biologist, and psychologist. In addition, both the vet and biologist had Master degrees in Primatology. Chimps are very expensive to care for and MONA does an exceptional job of very limited resources. Volunteers make a positive difference by doing the work and with the money, they pay for the incredible opportunity.
6) Eating Local Specialities Like Shark Fin Soup When Travelling
You want to immerse yourself in the local culture and eat local food. Kudos to you for that. But please be aware of what you're eating and the harm it can do to wildlife. Something that's very close to my heart since I met my husband while diving with sharks is eating shark fin soup. It's considered a delicacy especially in China and Hong Kong. Shark finning is a cruel and
Shark finning is a cruel and destructive unsustainable practice that's threatening the entire marine ecosystem. Sharks (of any size or type) are caught and the fins are cut off. The rest of the shark is thrown back into the water. Unable to swim, the shark either drowns or is eaten alive by other fish. Either way, it's a painful and wasteful death. Over 100 million sharks are killed each year for shark fin soup. This is despite the fact that the fins have no nutrient value and they're tasteless. Check out this video to learn more about shark finning.
By all means, eat like the locals do when traveling but know what you're eating. And the impact it has before doing so.
7)Swimming with Dolphins or Seeing a Dolphin Show
We've all heard stories of dolphins saving a family from a Great White Shark and of bow riding - surfing the waves from boats so surely they'd like to swim with us right? Perhaps on their own terms but not in captivity. First, there's the issue of where the dolphins are coming from. Most are caught in the wild. The cute ones are sold to tourist attractions. The less cute ones slaughtered for meat. Families are separated and torn apart. Once caught, the cute ones face a grim future. Enclosures are usually small - they're all too small when you consider that dolphins swim tens of km's each day. Furthermore, dolphins may be kept in incompatible groups and with such small enclosures, they have no way to escape the conflict. As a result of the conditions and performing many dolphins in captivity die premature deaths due to stress. Source: PETA. If you need further proof watch The Cove, it's an undercover documentary exposing the dolphin slaughter in Japan.
Don't Give Money to Dancing Monkeys
I couldn't resist one last one. This should be obvious but monkeys on chains don't want to dress up. They don't want to dance. They're likely being beaten and are doing it out of fear. Don't buy the monkey a banana thinking that you're helping or give money for the care of the monkey. You're just encouraging ongoing cruelty. Instead, report the incident and let the local tourist office know that you don't support these types of activities.