Humans innately desire close relationships with animals and sometimes even the biggest animal lovers will close their eyes to reality when it comes to being able to have an "up close" experience with the animals they admire. Swimming with dolphins is probably one of the most popular "animal activities" to participate in and probably one of the most troubling in terms of the animal's welfare.

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I have to admit, I actually have swam with dolphins. At the age of 10 my parents took my brother and I on a trip to the Bahamas and while there we stayed at the Atlantis Hotel. Here we had the opportunity of visiting "Dolphin Cay" as their website claims an,

"extraordinary environment showcased on 14-acres with almost 7 million gallons of crystal clear seawater. It is one of the largest and most sophisticated marine habitats and animal rescue-rehabilitation facilities."

Well the first claim insinuates that these 14 acres are dedicated to the Dolphins, which is not the case. About half of that is solely designated for the dolphin "corrals". Also despite my research and attempts to reach out to Dolphin Cay I found no evidence that there is any rescue-rehabilitation of wild animals done at Dolphin Cay. The sole information I found on this topic was about how Dolphin Cay helped eight dolphins who were from ANOTHER ocenarium in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Although this is commendable, this is not wild rescue and rehabilitation.

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But back to my story, so we went to Dolphin Cay because my mother knew how much I loved animals.

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For a minute though I want to take a look at the word love. Doesn't love mean sacrifice? Doesn't love mean putting another's needs ahead of your own? I'd like to ask all of you reading this to remember those two aspects of the word love the next time you want to have an "up close" experience with an animal. Then take a minute to think about whether the experience you are participating in is just to satisfy your own desires or whether it actually is supporting the needs of the animals that you love.

Next up on the list...

What is a sanctuary anyway? It is considered by definition to be a place of "refuge or safety". Well to be frank, any place that allows the riding of an elephant is in no way a refuge from it's previous life. Elephants are some of the most intelligent creatures in the world and the phrase "an elephant never forgets" is not lost on these animals since they have the same potential for long term memories as humans. Thus, along with the basic facts that an elephant's spine is not anatomically designed for carrying much weight, the memories of being abused are most likely associated with the memories of being ridden.

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Please take some time to read about the process that goes into making an elephant "rideable". Dr. Evan Antin is a veterinarian who explains the process and why no one should support organizations that let you ride an elephant!

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https://www.facebook.com/evan.antin/posts/563843500406954

https://www.thailandelephants.org/the-ugly

https://www.thedodo.com/what-happens-inside-elephant-ride-1733390285.html

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But then what is the definition of conservation? It is defined as the "preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment, natural ecosystems, vegetation, and wildlife" again any organization that allows you to ride an elephant is not contributing to conservation since it is not "protecting or preserving" the true nature of these animals by subjecting them to human riders. The Thai Elephant Conservation Center is one such organization that makes claims about conservation and that learning the mahout way of life is a positive thing, but as you might have read in the links above the way that elephants are broken prior to their mahouts "release" is not a positive form of training in any way shape or form nor is it in any way "educational" to learn how humans have tortured and subjected these amazing animals to our selfish wills for decades.

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With that being said when you read lofty claims from an organization about how they are a "sanctuary" or "dedicated to conservation" keep a healthy level of skepticism and do your research! Luckily, due to so many becoming informed on this topic the general public is demanding for tourist traps where you can ride elephants to be shut down! Hopefully over time all organizations who solely aim to use animals for profit will suffer from the same backlash as well.

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Who wouldn't want to cuddle a baby tiger, lion, or bear and bottle feed it? The cute factor and the ability to document such an experience to brag and tell all of your friends about sure seems irresistible. But the truth of what goes on behind the scenes of these experiences is nothing to brag about...

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A telling tale is that of the Tiger Temple in Thailand. For years this place allowed tourists to take pictures with adult tigers while they were both chained and drugged and tourists could also bottle feed cubs literally all day long until the little ones threw up. Since baby tigers are what makes the most money it is best that these organizations keep their animals breeding and churning out new babies, but what happens to the adults? As with most animals who have lost their usefulness they are sold off to the highest bidder, whether that be for parts, as a pet, or into the entertainment industry.

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Another account of an organization that still has it's doors open is T.I.G.E.R.S Myrtle Beach Safari. This group claims that they are for "conservation" but they are far from living up to that word and even can be considered doing the opposite. When you walk in the door you have an array of "experiences" that you can choose from, a menu of "hands on" interactions that you can enjoy; from petting lynxes, to bottle feeding cubs, to even swimming with an elephant there are no limits to the animals who are at your disposal. On top of this, TIGERS likes to brag about their breeding efforts in creating "original colorations" of tigers. This means that they are artificially selecting animals that have mutations in their pigmentation alleles, inbreeding them to perpetuate these alleles, and then putting these animals on display and claiming these animals are "naturally" occurring and in need of protecting. As with any animal that has been brought about by artificial means, do not be fooled, they are not in need of protection since they do not usually occur in the wild! Actually in the wild they would most likely die at a young age because of either health problems, the lack of ability to camouflage, or even their own mothers killing them based on these reasons. In captivity it takes a lot of time and effort to create one viable cub with these markings because due to inbreeding these cubs usually are stillborn or have so many health problems that they die at a very young age.

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In terms of their donations to conservation from their fund, this also seems quite dubious. As stated by Alexandra Gerea, the Samutprakam Wildlife Park in Thailand is actually called the Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo,

"the facility is another for-profit organization, hosting what they call “freak” animals such as 6-legged crocodiles. The money they spend on “conservation” is actually spent on bringing animals into captivity."

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Also they very clearly even state in their own page that these animals are "trained and uniquely colored tigers" which thus are no use for any sort of reintroduction effort and are not promoting conservation. Among the other list of "conservation donations" are allowances to used trained animals for documentaries and films, although yes this could promote to a spread in the message of conservation, the underlying fact that these are wild animals that were bred solely for the purpose of entertainment somewhat defeats any of the "positive impact" of these things.

Also there are an array of claims surrounding the owner of this facility, Doc Antle, he has been associated with numerous USDA citations from abuse, to poor housing, to violating the Animal Welfare Act. But the most disturbing thing is that the same kind of black market trade in tigers which happened at the Tiger Temple is most likely happening right under our noses in the US, since again there is a ready supply of young tigers available for "encounters" all year round, but the population of adult tigers never seems to get bigger. Where are all the tigers going?!

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Last but not least, the realities of bottle feeding a cub do not come without severe costs to the young animals.

“Cubs used by exhibitors to make money from handling are typically torn from their mothers shortly after birth, a torment to both cub and mother. They are deprived of the comfort and nutrition of nursing and grooming by the mothers, subjected to unnatural levels of stress that lower their immune systems, and typically not allowed the natural amount and timing of sleep in order to satisfy customers,”

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So the next time you see one of these "experiences" being offered I hope you look at it with a healthy heart of skepticism and choose not to support such a cruel industry.

Will touch more on this subject next time.