Animal Welfare Commitment
COVID-19 challenged us to pause, reset and create change. The pandemic shone a spotlight on how our treatment of wild animals can create a catastrophic impact on our health, our liberties, our industries, and global economies. It’s now thought that around 60% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic (originate from animals), with over 70% of these originating from wild animals. The exploitation of wild animals is not only cruel, but exposes us to diseases like COVID-19, which puts our lives and livelihoods at risk.
Wildlife tourism accounts for a huge proportion of the travel industry. The pandemic highlighted the need to ensure that the ever-growing demand for wildlife encounters are responsible and mindful. When done respectfully, wildlife encounters can play a major role in protecting animals and their habitats. Unfortunately, we know that a huge proportion of wildlife tourism takes place in captivity - up to half a million wild animals currently suffer to entertain tourists around the world. Animals in these wildlife attractions are either taken from the wild or bred in captivity, so that tourists can swim with a dolphin, ride an elephant and take selfies, driving a multi-billion dollar global trade in wild animals.
We only know what we know and in the past, I’ve been guilty of being swept along with unnatural animal interactions. It’s only through education and open conversations that we can work to make a positive change. As a member of the travel industry, it is important that we do what we can to help keep wild animals in the wild. By committing to be a wildlife-friendly travel business, Tribe Family Adventures will continue to eliminate wildlife entertainment from our supply chain and only offer responsible wildlife experiences to clients.
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Tribe Family Adventures’ Animal Welfare Policy:
Tribe Family Adventures is fully committed to responsible tourism and protecting animals who are impacted by the travel industry. We have developed this animal welfare policy as animal encounters have become increasingly popular as part of people’s holiday experiences. However, some animal related activities, such as elephant riding, photo opportunities with tigers or watching dolphins perform, lead to suffering through cruel treatment and inhumane conditions. We believe that all animals should be respected for their intrinsic value and that the best way to experience animals whilst on holiday is by seeing them in the wild. When under human care, both domesticated and non-domesticated (wild) animals, must have ‘a good life’ by enjoying good physical and mental health. The conditions they are provided must favour positive experiences over negative ones within an environment that encourages making choices and enables them to express the widest possible range of natural behaviours. Tribe only works with suppliers if the animals under their care are provided with the highest possible welfare in line with the Five Domains of Animal Welfare: 1. Nutrition – animals must have access to sufficient, balanced, varied and clean food and water. 2. Environment –factors that enable comfort through temperature, substrate, space, air, odour, noise, and predictability. 3. Health - factors that enable good health through absence of disease, injury, impairment, and good fitness level. 4. Behaviour - factors that provide varied, novel and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing, retreating and others. 5. Mental State - by presenting positive situations in the previous four functional domains, the mental state of the animal should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort or vitality, while reducing negative states such as fear, frustration, hunger, pain or boredom. Tribe also recognises that the needs of wild animals can never be fully met in captivity. Where wild animals are kept in captivity the facility must not only provide them with best possible welfare conditions, it must also contribute towards a shift away from exploitative practices and be supportive of phasing out keeping wild animals for commercial purposes.
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Wildlife Experience Guidelines:
Tribe Family Adventures does not sell or promote venues and/or activities that offer tourists any of the following experiences: • Close interaction with wild animals, such as, touching or riding, including but not limited to elephant riding, swimming with dolphins or walking with lions. • Watching wild animal performances, including but not limited to dolphin shows, circuses, orangutan boxing. • Staged photo opportunities with wild animals, including, but not limited to big cats, sloths, or primates, tiger selfies, dolphin kissing, or selfies with orangutans. • Watching staged animal interactions, whether it be for sporting or cultural events, that cause animals to suffer or die, including but not limited to bullfighting, crocodile wrestling, dog fighting, rodeo and elephant polo. • Visiting facilities where captive wild animals are bred and kept for commercial products, including but not limited to crocodile farms, civet coffee farms, bear bile farms, turtle farms, • Engaging in trophy, canned hunting, or sport fishing. When not in conflict with any of the above guidelines Tribe Family Adventures does offer and/or promote the following venues and activities were tourist can experience animals: • Genuine animal sanctuaries, rehabilitation facilities and rescue centres that have the highest possible standards of animal care. For example, sanctuaries certified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) or elephant venues following World Animal Protection’s Elephant-Friendly venue guidelines. • Responsible, wildlife watching where a visitor can observe animals in their natural environment from a suitable distance without interrupting their natural behaviours or disturbing their routines. For example, whale watching experiences certified by the Whale Cetacean Alliance (WCA). • Zoos and aquariums that are accredited by members of World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and national zoo and aquarium accrediting bodies which do not hold cetaceans in captivity and do not use wild animals for direct contact activities with visitors or have them perform in shows.
