Animal Tourism is Animal Abuse

Elephants rides are a lucrative business in Asia with little regard for the welfare of the animals.

Social media is currently inundated with fury over wildlife tourist attractions – the latest being the elephants sat on elephants, or in other words, the tourists sat on baby elephants which are completely ill-equipped to saddle their weight.  These goons grin foolishly - with no regard for the welfare of the elephants - as they stand in the surf.

When is close too close?

The surest way to assess if the situation is ethical on the animal is to think long and hard about how far out of their natural environment the animal is for your entertainment.

Then look at how they are being treated by those selling you time with them.

 Consider the following as being abusive:

·       the animal is in a pen

·       the animal is on a lead

·       the animal is tied to another object

·       the animal is languishing in water

·       the animal is  being handled a lot

·       the animal looks underweight, sad or injured

 Now run. Run very far.

The likelihood is that if you continue to support a tourist trade where animals are abused, it will continue. The more support these trades get, the harder it is to eradicate them further down the line.

No photo is worthy of an animal being abused, maltreated or harmed. In situations where you have the opportunity to get close to a dangerous animal without danger, the chances are it is being drugged to prevent it attacking you.

It is not that the people ‘looking after’ the animals are some amazing wild animal whisperer, neither is it that the animal has a strange affinity towards humans so it is without the capacity to attack those it comes into contact with.

What you don’t see is often beyond your imagination. If people are selling snaps, rides or strokes with animals, they don’t care how the animal is looked after away from the tourists’ eye.

 

Animals are often drugged to prevent them being a danger to tourists.

 

Drugs are often used to ensure the animal is too soporific to attack.

In cases where drugs are not available for whatever reasons, the animals are often abused into submission: too scared to do anything but let you cross into their comfort zone due to the painful techniques used to control them.

Similar to medieval torture really.

We seem to be obsessed with adding animal mementos to our holiday snaps. The majority of the time, these are animals that we would never come into contact with at home. It is tempting. But we seem to have developed the pink elephant illusion.

The pink elephant

In this particularly fun English idiom it refers to our confusion: confusion at being attacked by wild animals, confusion at being attacked by wild humans against those posing on or too near to wildlife.

 

It also refers to drunken hallucinations that some are clearly suffering from on two levels: why on earth would you be safe around wild and dangerous animals? When is it ever ok to hop aboard an animal that clearly cannot support your weight or that you are endangering in some other way, e.g. riding elephants in the surf when salt water can damage their delicate skin.

Animals are called ‘wild’ for a reason. Just because they look cute and fluffy doesn’t mean they won’t rip your arm out of its socket if they feel threatened.  So, to clear this up for those who think big cats are adorable, primates aren’t cheeky and whales are just plain friendly, I thought I’d put this into perspective.

The Butterfly Effect

To explain this, I’m using a higher force that would potentially see humans as cute and harmless compared to their power: aliens.

If ten car loads of aliens stopped to look at you and your three children, you will no doubt feel very threatened. To the aliens, you are harmless, your kids cutie pies and your defences non-existent. Now, imagine those aliens raised their arms and took photos that flashed strong white light into your eyes. What would you do?

The next time ten car loads stop, they are a little closer, the lights a little stronger. You want to protect your children – what do you do?. You’re scared so instead you walk up to the front of their vehicle and intimidate them by say, ripping the bumper off and walking off with it, perhaps you jump up at an open door or window.

There isn’t much else you can do as a lone human. So, why we surprised when something like a bear, leopard or tiger does the same? Imagine now that aliens were not allowed inside a city. If they then ventured in, wouldn’t we be pissed off?  Wouldn’t we want revenge on these interlopers for this intrusion?

Do it once and we’re intimidated; do it daily and we’re in a constant state of fury where at some point we will snap. Picture these ‘monsters’ that are three times our size sat on one of your children. How angry are you now? How stupid do you consider the aliens to be?

Consider your children being taken away from you and tied up whilst an alien makes money from taking other aliens for rides on your children. These aliens are huge and your children are… well, children. How do you feel now?

Now you know why people don’t like those who grin foolishly as they proudly sit on top of an animal whose legs are buckling under their weight. Do blame the tourists, as well as those making money out of this cruel holiday experience for their selfishness in thinking it is ok.

There are several things we need to remember when encroaching in the territory of a wild animal:

·       It is their territory, not ours

·       They are wild and unpredictable

·       They can and will attack to protect themselves

·       Never get too close – the closer you are the more intimidating you become

·       Be respectful of the area, including taking ALL litter away

·       Feel privileged of any glimpses without feeling the need to be sat on, hugging or stroking any species

The backlash

When you consider the situation from this perspective, it is not surprising the reactions coming from animal lovers who actually respect the modesty of all sentient creatures who respond either with fear, anger or loyalty. It really breaks my heart and around the globe, many others lie shattered on the floor at such thoughtless behaviour. It is no wonder people are now being publicly named and shamed on social media. I have no sympathy if you are one of these people. Let’s hope no adult bears come and sit on your children – you’ll never sit on an animal again.

It was this backlash that led me to research other stories of the ridiculous when it comes to wild animals. The certainly go from the sublime to the ridiculous!

The sublime includes the woman who had her breasts felt by a couple of cheeky orang –utans, which was captured on camera in 2016. The ridiculous has more sinister and tragic elements.

Copping a cheeky feel. Animals have needs, too.

 

 

After her mother was mauled to death by tigers in Beijing’s Badaling Wildlife World, Ms Zhao is now suing the park after she got out of the car in the middle of what she said she thought was a ‘safe zone’. Her lawsuit has been accepted after she stated the park was ‘highly dangerous’ in allowing vehicles into it.

 

There appears to be blame on both sides here if you read the story: the park for not giving clarity about when and where to not leave the vehicle, though I would have thought this was fairly obvious; hers for thinking she was driving through a teddy bear’s picnic area.

Park or no park, zoo or no zoo, if you are not willing to get close to animals in the wild, don’t do it anywhere. If you are still adamant about being up close and personal, try volunteering at one of the amazing organisations around the world and kill two birds with one stone.

Moving forward

What angers me most about this is perhaps the ignorance shown by visitors and tourists that combined with their self-centredness, avarice and stupidity is having cataclysmic results around the world. No animal should suffer because of human behaviour and vice versa. So what do we do?

What you don't see: there is a darker  side to tourism.

1.    Respectful tourism

Showing some respect for animals would go such a long way here and in many cases, we do.  I’ve been shark watching with a company that only used tuna oil to attract sharks so they wouldn’t become dependent on food; whale watching where there is a minimum distance boats must stay back from whales; safaris that demand quiet, doors are kept shut and windows locked if dangerous animals are abroad.

If tourism included global laws and regulations about how close you could get to animals and how not to cause undue distress, the world would be a far better place. This is not the Victorian era; animals are not a freak show or exhibits to goad publicly. Plenty of people would still pay money to view animals playing in natural habitats without causing a disruption

Let’s forget about money for a minute and consider the animals’ health and safety.

2.    Prosecute those breaking the law!

The lack of prosecutions for animal cruelty around the globe really angers me and in nearly every case it comes down to money. It is about time governments consider how long this money will last if we allow people to senselessly mistreat or kill animals. It won’t be long until the boost to the economy runs out and costs the country millions in lost revenue.

3.    Education, education, education

Tony Blair couldn’t stress this enough before he became PM in 1997 and neither can I! If people knew what really went on at animal tourist attractions, I’d like to think they wouldn’t go.

Perhaps it is time that animal cruelty and the disastrous results be taught in school globally before there are no animals left to mistreat. With more pressing problems in the world, destroying the planet is a headache we can do without. We can always use aliens to help teach the lesson with clarity. This is already working in certain parts of the world!

 

4.    Stricter regulations in national parks and reserves

The mother mauled to death by the tiger in Beijing may still be here today if only clearer literature were provided on the dangers of driving through the park. This may seem obvious to most of us but there are exceptions to every rule so let’s not leave ourselves open to prosecution. Safety talks, disclaimers, booklets and warning signs should prevent more tragedies and if it doesn’t, let’s go back to step 3.

If you are still not convinced about animal cruelty and tourist attractions, read the next blog which will look at the cruellest animal attractions around the world.