This is how we encourage animal abuse on travel
We will talk about animals that you have known throughout your life but that, because of that encounter, are now gone. Our love killed them, and how.
The word responsible lazy, we know. It's been too many years listening to it: at home, at work, from your partner and now also on trips. They won't let us live in peace! It seems that we do everything wrong and, although this phrase is also familiar to us, they are still right. However, pay attention, because it is important. To prevent events such as those of last September in Costa Rica from happening again, when mass tourism prevented the Ostional sea turtles from laying their eggs and caused the loss of hatchlings , we want to inform you about other activities that, without knowing it, also make us the worst enemies of the fauna of our planet.
Dolphins suffer in captivity.
For this we have turned to **FAADA, the non-profit organization that has been fighting for animal rights for more than ten years.** “The main problem is the lack of information. Almost all those who carry out activities with living beings are usually animal lovers. They see the attractive activity and they think they are doing something good . Companies take advantage of that. As there is no blood and there is no obvious abuse, it is very difficult to eradicate”, he explains. Giovanna Constantini, coordinator of the responsible tourism department of FAADA. And it is that abuse is not only about a bullfight, abandoning a pet or attending an animal show. The problem is also in many of the following activities that there is nothing harmless about them.
SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS
According to Giovanna Constantini, this is one of the most widespread. “Perhaps because dolphins are adorable beings and a show with them is always pleasant”, in addition to being one of the photos that generate the most likes on Facebook. Nevertheless, there are no excuses here . And it is that the problem of trafficking and exploitation of dolphins was brought to light not only by organizations around the world, but also by the Flipper's former trainer, Ric O'Barry, who, after seeing how all the substitute dolphins committed suicide , decided to investigate and denounce the facts through the documentary ** The Cove ** (we warn that it is hard, although necessary).
Many dolphins commit suicide
But what is the main problem with dolphins? If they want us. No, the truth is that they hate us, and with good reason. A dolphin is a wild animal, it needs to travel more than eight kilometers a day . They also live in community, they love their family just like you love yours, and they really don't want to laugh at us. If we believe so, it is only because they are forced to fake it. And they do it by killing the older dolphins and mistreating the younger ones. They don't want to kiss us or jump around us, they don't want us to scream, clap or have the music blaring. They have such fine hearing that all that racket the only thing that makes them want to commit suicide , and boy do they. And whoever speaks of dolphins also refers to killer whales . With how much we liked Willy and how much it cost him to release him (here we recommend you watch ** Blackfish **) so that we can now support repeating his story.
RIDE AN ELEPHANT OR CAMEL
Who can resist traveling to India, Thailand or Sri Lanka and not ride one of his elephants? “It is one of the most difficult activities to eradicate because they offer it in many travel agencies and it is very easy to find someone to take you on it Giovanna comments. The good news is that "more and more travelers are becoming aware of it," she adds. We should be in that group. And it is that captive animals have a much shorter life expectancy . Elephants are very large animals but, in addition to living as a family, they cannot bear so many kilos on top of them. Adding the chair, the guide and us, some manage to transport more than 150 kilos . Between the little time they have to rest, the heat and the conditions in which they find themselves, what surprises us is that there are still any alive. It is not necessary to use a rifle to kill them, it is only enough to promote businesses like this.
Some elephants can carry more than 150 kilos.
Special care must also be taken with animal orphanages , many of them live on our good will. For this, FAADA has launched a list with those who are considered responsible. The same thing happens with camels, donkeys and horses. . Let's not let animals continue to be a means of transportation, the wheel was invented for a reason.
FEED A BABY TIGER
Why would a tiger, which would eat us all, want us to give him a bottle. Perhaps because he has no mother to feed him. It occurs to us that, if he doesn't have a mother to do it anyway, it's because she has been murdered. This business moves so much money that, while we pose proudly doing a good deed, inside they are already preparing new baby tigers: pulling out the fangs so they can't bite us, the claws so they don't scratch us , and they are being abused to make them submissive and lovable. All this after having left them orphans, of course.
TAKE PHOTOS WITH A MONKEY
You can change the monkey for parrots, toucans, desert foxes, snakes and other animals whose life has been condemned to pose in front of the cameras. The flash blinds them , although they may not die from that, but from the drugs that are administered to them so that they are not the ones who hit us with the camera in the head, and we would have well deserved it. From a young age, their hooves are ripped off, their teeth are sharpened and they are separated from their mothers. which, in case there is still any doubt, are also killed. At the end of the day they are locked in cages until the arrival of new tourists.
The flash blinds the monkeys.
BUY SOUVENIRS MADE WITH ANIMAL PARTS
With each shark tooth, elephant tusk, crocodile skin, bear or of any other animal we are promoting its death solely in order to take away a souvenir that will possibly end up on a shelf full of dust. It will have been very cheap for us, not so much for them, it has cost them their lives.
To this list should be added the dancing bears, crocodile pools, circuses, aquariums or zoos around the world . In short, any activity that profits from animals. And it is not necessary to go very far to experience it, because although Thailand is the country with the fewest laws and where there is the most animal abuse, in Spain we still have a long way to go (and without resorting to bullfighting). "Just a few months ago a horse died of dehydration while carrying some tourists in Barcelona," recalls Giovanna. Let's never let our trips end with what we like the most.
*** You may also be interested in...**
- Interview with Frank of the Jungle
- Around the world in 25 bugs
- Animal life sanctuaries
- Cat tourism
- Kenya: this is how an ecosystem in motion is observed
- What to do if you are bitten by a monkey in Thailand
- Jumanji: Animal Phenomena of the World
Camels as a means of transportation.