Let’s hear it for the travel agents, including the giant Thomas Cook chain, for putting the welfare of animals ahead of profit opportunities.
Thomas Cook has recently reaffirmed its commitment to the Global Welfare Guidance for Animals in Tourism from ABTA, the UK travel association.
ABTA notes: “Whilst tourism can be a means for positive interactions between tourists and animals, where such attractions are not carefully managed or do not exhibit best practice there is the potential that such attractions can jeopardise animal welfare or the customer experience.”
The bottom line is trying to ensure that agents are not selling tickets to attractions that hurt or otherwise unduly exploit animals for profit.
Of course, some people will take different views on the level to which, say, zoos exploit animals. There will be “grey areas” in which people must rely on their own set of ethics.
But I hope we can agree that it’s wrong — and fraught — to regularly drug wild animals into a state of apparent domesticity, and/or remove their teeth and claws, so that visitors can cuddle them. Yet that practice does exist, and people do pay for it.
Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser said in a media statement: “We know that for many people, animals in captivity of any form is unacceptable. However, it is a sad truth that many captive animals cannot be safely returned to the wild.
“Tourism has a big role to play in raising standards for those animals during the transition to ending the practice of capturing animals for entertainment, and ending practices that are known to harm animals.”
Like some other agents, Thomas Cook also abides by sustainable tourism guidelines.
It’s great to see the travel industry take a stand.
