From Thailand’s tiger zoos to elephant rides at India’s Amer Fort, animal cruelty continues to thrive in the name of tourism. Tourists, unaware of the harsh living conditions of these animals, unknowingly support such cruelty by visiting such places. Sharada Balasubramanian writes on the ways in which this ostensibly benign industry needs to be exposed for what it does to its animals for the sake of catering to growing tourist demands, thereby stressing the need to create more awareness regarding the inhuman practices.
Thailand’s famous Sriracha Tiger Zoo’s website states, “We have welcomed more than 10 million visitors to see tigers since 1997.” Unfortunately, tourists visiting these sites do not know that they are unknowingly funding cruelty. Little do tourists realize that these tiger cubs are separated from their mothers at an early age and used as photo props. The tigers are handled and hugged by tourists and also kept in small cages.
Taking ‘tiger selfies’ and posing with them for the social media has triggered the demand for wildlife tourism and has resulted in irresponsible tourism globally. Further, the tourism industry itself is expanding, hence pushing the demand for wildlife entertainment activities, such as walking with lions, riding an elephant, or swimming with captive dolphins.
Research estimates that wildlife tourism is worth up to $250 billion annually. Further, Wildlife Tourist Attractions (WTAs) constitute about 20–40 per cent of global tourism. The sale of such tickets is done on leading travel sites such as TripAdvisor.
This story is from the October 2017 edition of TerraGreen.
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This story is from the October 2017 edition of TerraGreen.
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