How Not to Be a Jerk to Animals When You Travel

Selfies With Baby Tigers

What might seem like a harmless photo to you might mean a lifetime of misery for a baby tiger or any other animal forced to pose for pictures at a roadside zoo or other attraction. Baby tigers used at photo attractions are typically torn from their distraught mothers when they are just days old and then subjected to extreme stress and physical abuse. Once these tigers are no longer babies and are too dangerous to handle, they typically end up locked away in cages. Tiger selfies have nothing to do with conservation, despite the claims that tourist-trap operators may make to get you to participate. The animals offered up for selfies are bred for only one reason: to line the pockets of their abusers.
A picture of you with a cute baby tiger might get you a few likes on Instagram, but these selfies come at a high cost to the animals. And remember: It’s not only tigers who suffer for photo ops. Avoid any place that allows people to interact with bears, monkeys, alligators, lions, or any other animal and that charges for a photo op with these animals.

Bullfighting

Lisa Markkula

In a typical bullfight, a bull is led into an arena, and men on horses, called picadors, drive lances into the bull’s back and neck muscles. The picadors then twist and turn the lances to ensure maximum blood loss, which impairs the bull’s ability to lift his head and defend himself. Next, men on foot stab the bull with brightly colored darts called banderillas and run him in circles. The matador comes in when the bull is already near death. After provoking a few exhausted charges from the dying animal, the matador attempts to kill the bull by severing his spinal cord. In a final barbaric act, the bull’s ears and tail may be cut off as “trophies.”
Tourists who attend bullfights out of curiosity often flee in horror after only a few minutes, but by then, the damage has already been done because every ticket purchased keeps these sadistic spectacles alive.

Sampling of Civet Coffee and Other ‘Local Delicacies’

© iStock.com/Bhakpong

Kopi luwak is made from the beans of coffee berries that have been eaten and excreted—yes, you read that right!—by the Asian palm civet. To make this coffee, the civets are typically snatched from their homes in the forest to be imprisoned in tiny, barren cages. They’re deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, including freedom, exercise, space, and even a proper balanced diet.
The worst part of this cruel industry? It’s fueled by tourist attractions that offer samplings and by the exportation of the coffee to other parts of the world. A kopi luwak sampling may sound like an exotic “When in Rome” kind of experience, but drinking civet coffee is just plain cruel.
And it’s not just civets who suffer when tourists are tricked into thinking a cruel beverage or dish is a “local delicacy.” Eating a snake’s still-beating heart and drinking the animal’s blood at tourist stops in Vietnam is called cruel even by the locals, and it’s an activity sought out mostly by Western tourists. The same goes for foie gras in France, where the majority of locals disagree with the force-feeding of ducks and geese.
The best way to travel with compassion? Eat vegan. Check out these tips for eating vegan while on vacation.

Swimming With Dolphins

© iStock.com/helovi

Just because dolphins look like they’re smiling doesn’t mean that they’re happy to be stuck in tourist-infested tanks, away from their ocean homes, and forced to swim and interact with humans. Being confined to cramped tanks and harassed all day long can be extremely traumatic for dolphins, who are social and intelligent animals who naturally swim up to 60 miles a day with their families when they’re in their ocean homes. Many dolphins develop painful conditions, such as stomach ulcers, and most die prematurely from the stressful conditions of captivity.

Fish Pedicures

© iStock.com/baona

Yes, it’s a thing, and it’s as gross and cruel as it sounds. Some U.S. states have already banned fish pedicures, and legislation for additional bans is pending in other states. The fish used in these pedicures are starved so that they’re hungry enough to eat the flesh off human feet. And the fish are ultimately discarded as if they were used-up emery boards, not living beings.

Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides

For the animal who is strapped in a harness, surrounded by noisy traffic, and forced to work long hours in the blazing heat and freezing cold, there’s nothing romantic about a horse-drawn carriage ride. Many horses have collapsed under the stress. The list of accidents involving horse-drawn carriages grows every year, so this is definitely a vacay activity to skip for the sake of the horses’ well-being and your own safety.

Visiting Aquariums and Zoos

© iStock.com/carlosalvarez

No zoo or aquarium can begin to replicate animals’ natural homes. Tanks and cages are no place for animals who roam hundreds of miles a day when in the wild. These places teach people that it’s acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in captivity, where they’re bored, cramped, lonely, and denied all control over their lives. Definitely not a good lesson to teach the kiddos over spring break this year.

© iStock.com/PeopleImages

The bad news is there’s a lot of stuff you should avoid on vacation if you don’t want to hurt animals. But the great news is that you can still have the best and most compassionate vacation ever by taking advantage of the tons of animal-friendly activities that are available out there.
If you want to observe animals, consider a whale-watching tour or visiting or volunteering at an accredited sanctuary. Take photos of sea lions sunbathing in their natural habitat. Go to non-animal circuses, drink local vegan wine, go dancing, go to museums, and more. Really, the possibilities for a compassionate vacation are limited only by how great your commitment is to keeping animal suffering out of your itinerary.
More info: PETA