The holiday season offers many South Africans an opportunity to explore and adventure. But are our itineraries and activity bucket lists unknowingly contributing to animal exploitation? Here’s how to travel kind and ensure your adventures are animal-friendly:
Global (11 November 2024) — Animal welfare isn’t usually top-of-mind when it comes to travel plans. Yet, animal-centric activities often are, especially in wildlife-rich countries like South Africa. While many tourists hardly aim to contribute to animal exploitation, they unknowingly are. So, how can we travel kind and ensure our adventures are animal-friendly?
FOUR PAWS has broken down a few key recommendations as part of their Animal-Friendly Wildlife Travel Guide and larger campaign, #TravelKind.
It’s a mission to shine the light on the hidden suffering many animals endure as tourist attractions and activities on the itinerary. From lions to elephants, one person’s ‘epic holiday experience’ is one animal’s suffering. So, let’s get educated!
How to Travel Kind and Pursue Animal-Friendly Adventures
Not all Sanctuaries are True Sanctuaries
Visiting a wildlife sanctuary is many a traveller’s dream. But some sanctuaries are essentially glorified zoos, and the responsible traveller is encouraged to know the difference.
Always do a little digging to see whether a sanctuary is accredited, focused on rescues, rehabilitations and conservation.
A big way to tell whether there’s some exploitation afoot is whether or not animal handling activities are on offer (ie: animal petting opportunities). One must always ask why an animal that isn’t domesticated would be so tame and timid around strangers. As many wildlife animal welfare organisations will tell you, it takes a lot of time and effort for an animal to be comfortable around one human, never mind groups. So if you can pet an adult tiger without trouble, think twice about why that’s possible and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
True sanctuaries in South Africa recommended by FOUR PAWS are:
- LIONSROCK Big Cat Sanctuary
- Drakenstein Lion Park
- Panthera Africa
- Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary
For Wildlife Destinations, FOUR PAWS recommends:
- Addo Elephant National Park
- iSimangaliso Wetland Park
- Mountain Zebra National Park
- Marakele National Park
- Kruger National Park
Avoid Attractions Where Animals are Performers
Animal attractions have great salespeople. This means that they will sell tourists great ideas to make them think the attraction is not what it is—an exploitative endeavour. An orca will never have ‘plenty of space’ to ‘perform’ for crowds unless that space is the ocean and said crowd are marine life creatures.
Here’s the thing: animals aren’t performers and when they are, there’s often a lot of cruel training that’s gone on behind the scenes.
Refuse to ride the elephant. Miss out on the orca show. The best ‘performances’ are those in which animals are simply left to be themselves that you happen upon (like a game drive in an approved wildlife destination).
Give the Animal Selfies the Boot
Attractions that offer options like animal selfies often involve abusive practices and can place animals in unnatural and stressful environments. You’ll have enough selfies on your trip; one less won’t hurt.
Empower Others with Information
We’re social animals ourselves and we tend to follow each other when we agree with something. But we can’t agree with something if we don’t have information about it!
Travel kind, be considerate and remember to spread the word to your friends, family and fellow tourists.
Ultimately, when there is less demand for exploitative activities, there’s more reason for the tourism industry to prioritise animal welfare.
For more info, you can (and should) access the full digital Animal-Friendly Wildlife Travel Guide here.
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