GetYourGuide, a global travel company, is selling tickets to entertainment venues like Dolphin Discovery, profiting from the abuse of marine mammals. Dolphin Discovery is owned by The Dolphin Company, the parent company of the Miami Seaquarium.
(This blog post is part of a series that draws from World Animal Protection’s recent Making Memories Misery report).
The Dolphin Company’s cruelty towards marine mammals unfortunately extends beyond Miami Seaquarium—a venue so cruel that the county of Miami-Dade recently terminated Miami Seaquarium’s lease due to animal welfare concerns. It also owns multiple Dolphin Discovery venues in the Caribbean, Mexico, and around the US.
Marine animals at Dolphin Discovery are cruelly confined to tanks or sea pens (small netted-off areas in the ocean), where they’re forced to perform for entertainment.
The tanks at Dolphin Discovery venues can never fully meet the needs of a dolphin, as the surfaces are intentionally smooth, featureless, and light-colored, providing no stimulation or retreat for the dolphins confined to them. These cruel, small tanks are filled with chemicals such as chlorine—meant to disinfect tank water and make it “prettier” for tourists—that can cause severe eye and skin problems. This is nothing new to The Dolphin Company, which has had multiple animals at Miami Seaquarium endure illness and other ailments from improperly balanced chemicals.
Additionally, the sea pens used at Dolphin Discovery are not chosen on where it’s best for the animals, but rather near tourism sites and cruise ports. Dolphins are forced to live near pollution and leaking boat fuel and are exposed to high levels of sound that can cause stress and hearing damage. Similarly to the Miami Seaquarium, these animals are situated in areas vulnerable to catastrophic weather events, such as hurricanes which are increasingly getting worse with each passing year, with the animals having no means of escape.
Lorena Kya Lopez, a former marine mammal trainer who now speaks out against the industry, worked with World Animal Protection in 2020 to tell the story of Makaiko, a bottlenose dolphin captured during the notorious Taiji dolphin hunts before eventually ending up at the Isla Mujeres Dolphin Discovery venue. Makaiko was forced to perform for tourists daily until he became tangled in the nets of his sea pen and died.
Places like Dolphin Discovery continue to thrive despite animal cruelty for one simple reason: tourism operators continue to promote them as fun and appealing activities, encouraging visitors who are likely unaware of the cruelty animals are forced to endure to see these attractions as acceptable.
One of those tourism operators who continues to promote animal abuse is GetYourGuide, which sells guided travel tours, tickets to tourist attractions, and excursions around the world. Our survey of GetYourGuide’s offerings, exposed in our Making Memories Misery report, found that the company continues to sell some of the worst captive wildlife venues in the world, exploiting a wide range of species, including dolphins, alligators, budgies, non-human primates, turtles, and sloths in addition to elephants.
GetYourGuide is no stranger to profiting from cruelty, as the venue continues to rake in profits from SeaWorld, Amer Fort, Gatorland, and other venues that have ties to the cruel and heinous Taiji dolphin hunts.
World Animal Protection, along with PETA and Welttierschutzgesellschaft (WTG), recently protested GetYourGuide in Berlin, where the company is headquartered, with over a dozen supporters joining us.
In addition to the protest, World Animal Protection launched a billboard near the company’s headquarters calling out GetYourGuide, and a mobile LED billboard vehicle will circle throughout Berlin as GetYourGuide employees arrive for the company’s flagship Summer Summit’s all-staff gathering.
Both consumers and the travel industry have the power to stop the wild capture and exploitation of animals for entertainment venues. It’s up to us as consumers to boycott GetYourGuide until it removes cruel wildlife entertainment venues and implements a progressive animal welfare policy.
Take action now and demand that GetYourGuide remove its sales of wildlife entertainment venues.