No, it will never be ethical to use animals for fun on holiday

Telegraph

29-03-2025

I was once a fool who rode an elephant. Knowing what I do now about the industry, it is one of the most shameful things I've ever done. As a then 18-year-old backpacker in Thailand, I do remember swaying on its back, feeling not quite right about it; but naively, I assumed it was OK since it was so popular back then, and selfishly, I just wanted to be as close as possible to this magnificent beast.
So I appreciate the temptation – ironically, particularly among animal-lovers – to gravitate towards interactions with exotic species while travelling. But in this day and age, it is simply inexcusable. No, it can never be ethical to ride a mammal for fun, nor to swim with a confined sea creature or pose for a photo with a zoo inmate, for that matter.
How would you like it if an army of aliens, far more intelligent humans, descended upon Earth, rounded us up, muzzled us, and kept us behind bars only to be wheeled out and mounted for entertainment? Or, if that sounds too obscure a notion, would you hire out your beloved dog or cat for several hours a day to be prodded and toyed with by strangers just for a bit of extra cash? No? Well then.
There are so many reasons we should be severing our long-standing association with animals as for-profit amusement. We've been jailing and enslaving them right from the start of humanity, and it is, in my opinion, a ghastly trait that needs to be left in the past.
For a start, it is dangerous for tourists to be snuggling up to wild animals, even those that are sold as 'domesticated' (which often means drugged or beaten into submission). Earlier this year, a 22-year-old Spanish traveller was gored to death by an elephant in Thailand, and she wasn't even riding it; merely helping to give it a bath. Blanca Ojanguren García was washing the animal at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre when it sank its tusk into her, with experts telling the Clarín newspaper that the elephant had likely become stressed due to the pressure of living and interacting with tourists outside of its ecosystem.
On its website, the elephant centre says it is committed to 'providing responsible and ethical interactions with elephants' and that it does not 'control' or 'use a hook on our elephants'. According to data from the Thai department of national parks, there have been at least 227 deaths in the country caused by elephant attacks in the past 12 years, including 39 fatalities in 2024 alone.
On one hand, I have seen vast improvements in awareness since I was a teenager. You only have to look at the worldwide outrage triggered earlier this month when American influencer Sam Jones posted an idiotic video of herself snatching a baby wombat from its mother in Australia, and faced the full wrath of the internet and a withering condemnation from the Australian Prime Minister.
Documentaries like Blackfish, the 2013 film that exposed the dark side to SeaWorld – a company that for decades exploited whales and dolphins performing tricks in glorified swimming pools – have been pivotal, too, in changing public perception. SeaWorld responded by announcing that it would upgrade its theme parks and enlarge its tanks – but the damage was done, and almost every major UK tour operator, from TripAdvisor to Virgin Holidays and British Airways Holidays, stopped selling tickets to their parks in protest.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has been particularly aggressive in its efforts to get more travel companies to boycott what it calls 'abusement parks'. The charity's vice president of programmes Elisa Allen tells Telegraph Travel: 'Jet2holidays recently cut ties with cruel marine parks, Airbnb ditched camel and horse rides at the Giza pyramids, where animals are routinely whipped, and Easyjet has stopped promoting all activities for which captive animals are used for 'entertainment' or tourist transport.
'After watching PETA's exposés, which show how animals are beaten, starved, covered in sores and quite literally worked to death, responsible companies can no longer turn a blind eye to their suffering. Yet, while the tide is turning, TUI remains a disgraceful outlier as it is the last major UK travel provider to still sell tickets to marine parks.' TUI did not respond to Telegraph Travel 's request for comment.
We also spoke to Humane World for Animals, which heralds victories too. Last year, for example, Australia's Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld brought an end to all direct human interactions with tigers. In the UK, after much campaigning, our nation introduced the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which – as if weren't already blindingly obvious – recognises them as sentient beings and aims to ensure their welfare is considered in policy decisions, including restrictions on activities that involve direct interactions with wild animals.
Still, however, zoos (which I've railed against in the past and shall forever more) continue to prosper in the UK and abroad. In the US, nearly 1,000 exhibitors offer public encounters with wild animals; a number that nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021. In South Africa, there are more than twice the number of lions suffering in captivity as part of attractions such as 'cub-petting' than remain there in the wild. And SeaWorld, having seemingly fallen from its previous popularity levels in the West, has instead been expanding into the Middle East, having launched a new £1 billion 'mega development' in Abu Dhabi in 2023.
Progress has been made, but there is a long way to go. So if you encounter what looks like a grey area when it comes to an enticing animal interaction on your next holiday – whether that be a donkey ride in Blackpool or a dolphin high-five in the Caribbean – ask yourself the following: 'If I was this creature, would I want to be involved in this?' Or even, 'if I owned this animal myself, would I rent it out to tourists?' If the answer to either is no, then you've found your stance.