{"id":753350,"date":"2018-05-24T07:49:11","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T11:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arkcenter.us\/?p=753350"},"modified":"2018-05-24T07:50:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T11:50:47","slug":"holiday-giants-including-tui-and-tripadvisor-profiting-from-animal-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=753350","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife tourism: Holiday giants including TUI and TripAdvisor profiting from animal cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<blockquote  class=\"bs-quote bs-quote-1 bsq-t1 bsq-s1 bsq-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"quote-content\">\n\t\t\t<p>I passed numerous elephants chained in solitary confinement. The fact they were shaking back and forth and only doing repetitive movements disturbed me. They looked like they were in deep distress.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>JANE DALTON:<\/strong> <em>&#8216;Some of the world\u2019s best known names in travel&#8230; are accused of profiting from animal cruelty by promoting attractions worldwide where animals may be caused to suffer behind the scenes to make them compliant for holidaymakers. Which? Travel, which researched 10 holiday firms, said many were making grand-sounding pledges on animal welfare that were ultimately empty promises. The consumer group said its findings included: Expedia&#8230; TripAdvisor&#8230; Trailfinders&#8230; Riviera Travel&#8230; Which? Travel says it discovered that TUI \u2013 formerly Thomson Holidays \u2013 was selling elephant rides in Laos, near Thailand, even though its website said rides and shows were stressful for the animals and harmed their wellbeing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Separately, TUI was also promoting a tour that included the controversial Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka until Which? investigated \u2013 when it took it down&#8230; A popular travellers\u2019 blog last month urged people never to visit Pinnawala, reporting: \u201cI quickly became horrified at how these elephants were treated. I passed numerous elephants chained in solitary confinement\u2026 the fact they were shaking back and forth and only doing repetitive movements disturbed me. They looked like they were in deep distress.\u201d Elephants were chained by their legs under water, unable to move around, some even forced to lie in the water and threatened with violence if they tried to get up&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>However, both Expedia and TripAdvisor are still selling tickets to Pinnawala, and TripAdvisor allows reviews and photos of it. Expedia\u2019s website even claims: \u201cWatch local mahouts \u2013 elephant handlers \u2013 as they take care of these magnificent creatures.\u201d Which? also said Expedia was selling tickets to a Thailand spectacle, Phuket FantaSea, that featured tigers jumping through hoops of fire, the report said, and that tourists could also bottle-feed cubs there. \u201cDon\u2019t miss the chance to hold a tiger cub,\u201d Expedia\u2019s website still says&#8230; Groups that have previously investigated such shows, including Animals Asia, have found evidence of animals being beaten with sticks and metal hooks and having their teeth and claws painfully removed to be taught these \u201ctricks\u201d. Tigers are naturally afraid of fire and will avoid it&#8217;.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/animal-cruelty-tui-tripadvisor-expedia-trailfinders-profit-tourist-attractions-which-investigation-a8346686.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SOURCE&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e1eMi9aapS8?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JANE DALTON: &#8216;Some of the world\u2019s best known names in travel&#8230; are accused of profiting from animal cruelty by promoting attractions worldwide where animals may be caused to suffer behind the scenes to make them compliant for holidaymakers. Which? Travel, which researched 10 holiday firms, said many were making grand-sounding pledges on animal welfare that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":753351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,17,18,25],"tags":[28,30,32],"class_list":["post-753350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-environment","category-ethics","category-welfare","tag-entertainment","tag-exploitation","tag-free-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=753350"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753354,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753350\/revisions\/753354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/753351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=753350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=753350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=753350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}