Do's and Don’ts of responsible travel

When travelling, it can be challenging to determine which attractions with animals are ethical to visit and which ones to avoid. The use of animals in entertainment brings with it the potential for these animals to suffer either due to the living conditions they are kept within, how they are treated, or the very fact they may have been removed from the wild or their natural parents / social groups to be trained for our entertainment.

Some attractions, such as ‘elephant parks,’ have started to move away from allowing tourists to ride elephants, but it is important to be cautious before visiting these facilities. In many cases the animals may still be used for shows which are often referred to as ‘natural behaviour shows’ and many will still allow ‘visitor interactions’ which require a certain level of ‘control’ by the animal handlers.

It is not possible to recommend any specific ‘elephant park/sanctuary’ without being able to see the management regime for each elephant and analyse the diets and health care provisions. But a facility that has stopped using elephants in shows, and does not allow visitor interactions, yet relies on visitors being able to watch elephants socializing and performing their natural behaviours would be one that we would encourage visitors to attend over one which continues to use animals for riding, bathing and photographs.

There is no ‘dolphin’ facility that we would recommend, dolphins (and other cetaceans) are very complex animals and no captivity can provide them with the physical and behavioural needs they require. We recommend that you avoid any attraction that contains dolphins and/or other cetaceans.