A macaque performs for tourists at an attraction in Thailand

TripAdvisor Inc. profits from wildlife cruelty: sign our petition to stop the abuse

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TripAdvisor Inc. is selling tickets to and promoting cruel wildlife tourist attractions. Help us demand that they protect wild animals and end their support of this cruel industry.

Tigers, lions, bears, turtles: these are just some of the wild animal species suffering in cruel attractions right now. They are often brutally trained and forced to perform, be ridden, handled and pose just for tourists’ entertainment. TripAdvisor Inc. sells tickets to and promotes many of these venues through their subsidiary company, Viator.

TripAdvisor, owned by TripAdvisor Inc., is the world’s largest travel site. A company of its size has an incredible level of influence – it is simply unacceptable for them to promote cruelty. We have approached TripAdvisor on numerous occasions but they have still not taken action to protect wild animals.

Earlier this year we released a report based on Oxford University research. 188 wildlife tourist attractions were studied, and 75% of them were found to inflict cruelty on the wild animals involved. Our investigations show that Viator, the company TripAdvisor Inc. acquired in 2014, sells tickets to a number of these exact venues.

Celebrate venues that benefit wildlife instead

We want a world without animal cruelty, but TripAdvisor’s actions are a barrier to this progress.

In addition to selling tickets, TripAdvisor awards chosen venues a Certificate of Excellence badge, despite the fact some of these places are proven to be cruel. By instilling trust, these certificates encourage tourists to go to the venues, perpetuating the sad cycle of abuse.

We propose that TripAdvisor rewards positive venues that are beneficial to wild animals with a WildlifeLeaders title. Much like their GreenLeaders badge programme that helps tourists choose environmentally-friendly companies, the WildlifeLeaders badge would help tourists to avoid animal cruelty.

Sign our petition

Thomas Cook, one of the largest travel companies, have already listened to us and ended their sale of elephant rides and shows this year. This proves that we are powerful together – we can make TripAdvisor respect wild animals. Sign our petition today.

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