GetYourGuide, a global travel company, sells tickets to entertainment venues allowing sloth encounters, profiting from the abuse of one of the world’s most shy animals.
(This blog post is part of a series that draws from World Animal Protection’s recent Making Memories Misery report.)
Sloths are some of the planet’s most iconic animals, but they’re suffering around the world for photo opportunities at entertainment venues. The facial markings of sloths give the impression that these animals are always smiling, even when enduring immense stress or physical pain. You could compare this to a dolphin’s “smile” (the shape of their jaw) or a primate’s “smile” (a fearful grimace)—just another way we can easily misinterpret animals’ emotions.
Because of this seemingly innocuous facial feature, sloths became a main target for cruel wildlife venues and unethical tour operators to profit from.
A 2017 World Animal Protection report found that sloths have been taken from the wild, often illegally, before they’re exploited and injured by irresponsible tour operators or for the wildlife pet trade.
Watch our undercover investigation of how sloths are caught from the wild:
Sloths captured from the wild are often so stressed that they do not survive more than six months in captivity, leading to a constant need of sloth captures and breeding. Our sloth capture investigation found that illegal loggers often sell the terrified animals at markets for a shocking $13. However, that doesn’t stop tour operators like Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout from profiting off this cruelty.
Our 2024 report, Making Memories Misery, found that sloths are still being exploited for money despite the clear cruelty and abuse these venues make them endure.
One such venue, Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout in Roatán, Honduras, allows sloths and monkeys to be passed from tourist to tourist for photos in chaotic environments. Visitors pay to take photos with monkeys, sloths, and parrots, and erroneously describes itself as a “small family-run sanctuary,” however direct interactions with wild animals are not anything a legitimate sanctuary would offer.
Tourists participating in sloth selfies usually don’t know the proper way to handle such animals as they haven’t been trained in animal husbandry. So many of these sloths are held without the proper support they need for their bodies. In the wild, sloths will be supported by tree branches, but are often mishandled by tourists, leading to possible injuries or even death for the animals.
In addition, sloths require fifteen to eighteen hours of sleep each day due to their extremely slow metabolisms. These sensitive animals are forced to be awake during photo props throughout the day and are exposed to repeated handling, flash photography, and restrictive movement.
Places like Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout 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, elephants, non-human primates, turtles, and alligators in addition to sloths.
GetYourGuide is no stranger to profiting from cruelty, as the venue continues to rake in profits from Miami Seaquarium—a venue so cruel that the county of Miami-Dade recently terminated Miami Seaquarium’s lease due to animal welfare concerns—and venues who 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 circulated throughout Berlin as GetYourGuide employees arrived 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, captive breeding, and continued 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, including those participating in sloth encounters.