So here it is. I travel a lot and I have an degree in Responsible Tourism Management. I love animals and do my best to travel ethically. Still… I made a huge mistake of riding an elephant in Laos a few years ago, at the beginning of my solo travels. I let the company I had chosen for the elephant experience pull the wool over my eyes.
At that time I didn’t know enough, I didn’t read enough, I didn’t check whether it was really OK to ride an elephant, like the company claimed. They said they had saved these elephants from logging industry and now they were earning money from rides to offer them a sanctuary later … Yeah, I was naive, to put it mildly. It was false claims on their part and, as much as I would never like to admit to myself, ignorance on mine.
Riding an elephant can never be ethical, no matter what they tell you
This particular travel-related experience is the only one that I really regret, especially because at the time I was already interested in responsible and ethical travel. This goes to show how important it is to spread awareness of such animal attractions. At the bottom of this post, you can read about why riding elephants is a really bad idea.
As I experienced firsthand, even well-meaning and animal-loving people can make mistakes when they don’t know enough about specific attractions or activities. I still become sad and angry with myself whenever I think back to what I did.
This experience however has opened my eyes. It was then that I conceived of an idea of creating a site www.ethicaltravelsecrets.com to help raise people’s awareness of controversial and cruel animal attractions as well as many other important topics that are part of our travels. If sharing this story can make even one traveler delete elephant riding from her or his bucket list, then this will mean the world to me.
What can you do if you want to spend time with elephants but in an ethical way?
Visit a truly ethical elephant sanctuary
Last year I visited a truly ethical elephant sanctuary were there was no riding on elephants and no elephant shows – just observing and feeding them. It was Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai, Thailand. The sanctuary offers suffering elephants an everlasting home without work requirement and it is supported by the money paid by the visitors on entrance. Not only did I get to spend time with the elephants and to observe and feed them, but I also knew that the money I had spent there was put to a good use. This truly was one of the best experiences I have ever had during my travels.
More info: ethicaltravelsecrets.com
My one and only travel regret
