Travellers’ Animal Alert: 6 Issues Of Concern

The Born Free Foundation is a wildlife charity working to protect wild animals in the wild and prevent the suffering of captive animals. Their Zoo Check program was first launched in 1984 and was followed by a series of campaigns. The Foundation was established later in 1991. Husband and wife actors Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers Founded the organisation following their roles in the 1966 film ‘Born Free’, based on the true story of George and Joy Adamson returning an orphaned Lioness into the wilds of Africa.

Born Free have prepared a comprehensive list of some issues of concern that exist in captive animal attractions and that may be detrimental to the wellbeing and conservation of species. There is also a list of travellers tips detailing what to look out for both at home and abroad in captive facilities and in the wild.

1. Zoos - Many countries comply with minimum standards in animal care and inappropriate conditions persist due to limited resources and a lack of knowledge or negligence. All animals, regardless of their circumstance, are entitled to regular feeding, access to clean water and a clean environment that allows them to move and exercise freely. They should also be afforded facilities that protect them from adverse weather conditions and direct contact with humans, allowing the animal privacy and refuge as well as constant opportunities to express natural behaviour.
2. Elephant treks - Elephants used in ‘treks’, or those that partake in ‘performances’ at elephant facilities and camps across India, Thailand & Sri Lanka are domesticated, they are not domestic animals and still pose a real threat to human safety. Training regimes for these animals, which have been taken from the wild, can be harsh and control is inflicted using the ankus, or bull-hook. Elephants should not be chained but instead maintained in herds.
3. Animals as photographic props – This is particularly common in popular tourist resorts including Spain, Mexico and Thailand where visitors are targeted to pay to have their photograph taken holding one of these, or similar animals. In the majority of cases the animals suffer cramped and inadequate living conditions; are drugged, ‘de-clawed’ and ‘de-fanged’; and once they become too large to handle, face an uncertain future in a ‘slum’ zoo, circus, or worse.
4. Dolphins and Whales in captivity and in the wild – Direct contact between wild animals and humans should be discouraged on welfare and health grounds. Italy and Brazil have banned the touching and public feeding of, as well as swimming with, dolphins and whales on welfare grounds. Training wild animals for shows requires them to perform unnatural behaviour and ‘stunts’ that may sometimes be dangerous. The captive dolphin industry is currently unsustainable and due to high mortalities and low breeding success, as well as high demand for new dolphinaria, wild animals are regularly captured from the wild.
5. Wildlife viewing – Despite the availability of some good practice guidance, the viewing of wildlife in the wild is often abused: safari jeeps veering off road; whale-watching boats chasing dolphins; interference and encroachment; and in some cases encouraging tourists to have direct contact with the wild animals. These are examples of bad practice.
6. Captive animals used for Chinese Medicine – Tiger farms are known to exist throughout China to actively breed and stockpile animals should the current ban on the use of tiger body parts in Traditional Chinese Medicine be relaxed. Bears are often caught from the wild using leg-hold traps, moon bears are kept in tiny cages and, via a catheter surgically attached to their bile duct, continually milked for their bile. The bile is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Bears endure a life of pain, are often emaciated and have incurred terrible wounds. These farms are found in China and Vietnam. Work is underway by the charity Animals Asia to rescue and rehabilitate hundreds of bears from Bear Bile Farms.

If you’ve seen something that you’re not happy with then Born Free want to hear from you. Photographs or video footage is the best way to back up your claims.  Collect as much information as you can.  Every report submitted to Born Free is reviewed and logged to help identify ‘hot spots’ and campaign areas.