What To Do If You See Animal Exploitation On Vacation

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"From one creature to another"
By: JILL SCHENSUL
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
August 5, 2001

This is a hard column to write, although I know it must be written. And now, during summer, the height of the travel season. It is hard, though, because it is about some of the most painful memories of travel. It is about the remarkable universal cruelty and exploitation of animals.

Some of the situations I've come upon may have been only fleeting, but the image was instantly burned into my brain. A fish gasping for air on a bed of ice in a market in Old Jerusalem. Puppies faint and immobile in the hot sun of Amish country, without water or food, being sold by a clueless, dirty-faced little boy. A worker at a horseback riding concession in the Caribbean, beating a horse on the beach till it rose and shot away in a cloud of burning sand.

To me, these are acts of plain cruelty.

I have a reputation, among those who know me, of being sensitive to these kinds of issues. Like most people, I don't want to see an animal suffer. I have come to understand that my way of "seeing" and my idea of "suffering" is more extreme than the average human being's, however.

Worrying about the lives of animals, anything sentient, really, bugs and rodents included, is something I feel blessed with as well as tortured by. I know my thought processes must be somewhat unusual, however, since many travel "attractions" and "activities" I find unconscionable are popular, or even growing in popularity. Witness the swimming-with-dolphins programs. Despite the well-documented stress and damage to the marine mammals, not to mention, occasionally, the humans who swim with them, they are proliferating, and even with the steep prices, the demand outstrips the supply.

In my own small world at home, I take charge as much as I can. I won't even begin to discuss the moral dilemmas of living in the country, sharing your home with the endemic species fanged, furred, scaled, slithering.

But get on the road, and you don't know what sorts of disturbing situations you're going to run into. It can be anything, from seeing an animal hit by a car on a country lane, to a pitiful roadside zoo in a rural area trying to make a couple of bucks, to the dogs sitting in cages in markets in the Far East, being sold along with the lettuce and beans for dinner.

During the busy summer vacation season, travelers will undoubtedly run into situations they hadn't foreseen. While many animal welfare groups are underlining the need to keep companion animals safe in the summer heat, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has released an "Animal-Friendly Vacation Quiz." It poses such interesting situations as noticing an emaciated stray dog hanging around your hotel, seeing a tired, old carriage horse clopping by, or noticing bullfighting options on a possible trip to Spain.

In the case of the stray, PETA suggests taking the dog to a shelter, after checking out the shelter to make sure it is reputable, or having it checked out at a local vet and bringing it home with you. If you see a carriage horse, PETA suggests complaining to the mayor of the city, and in any case, not taking a ride. In the case of the bullfighting, PETA notes that "Bullfighting is largely kept alive by curious tourists.... Many resorts are building bullfighting arenas as tourist attractions. Refuse to stay at such resorts and tell your travel agent why, Instead, visit Tossa de Mar, La Vajol, and other towns that have banned bullfights."

In many cases, animal attractions and exploitation exist because the people involved can make a few bucks off the enterprise. One very easy way to help is not to contribute financially to their perpetuation.

The first step in becoming a compassionate traveler is to recognize and stay away from the activities that are built around the exploitation of animals. Different people will have different definitions of what exactly constitutes exploitation, but here are some of the more established forms you may encounter in your travels: Animal markets. Especially in parts of Asia, endangered and other types of animals have been either smuggled or simply bred for sale. Often they're kept in terrible conditions, and their fate may be similarly miserable.

Animal product souvenirs. Many are illegal, ivory, tortoiseshell, feathers. In other cases, entrepreneurs are depleting extant resources simply to give tourists a memory of something that eventually they will be unable to see in the wild.

Bullfights.

Dancing bears and other performing animals.

Greyhound racing.

Rodeos.

Animal rides and transportation by animals.

Zoos and aquariums. At their best they strive to provide "natural" habitats for their various inhabitants, offer breeding programs, and provide an educational experience. The worst are simply prisons, almost as upsetting for visitors as for the permanent residents. The ultimate lesson learned may be that animals are there for their expediency and distraction, and the false sense of security that comes from knowing that even if all the world's habitats are destroyed, the animals will survive, at least a few last specimens, in a cage for all to see.

Another, and sometimes more difficult, way to contribute is to take action. To complain, to write letters, to intervene if you feel safe enough.

When I was in the market in Jerusalem, and saw a fishmonger keeping a fish barely alive on a bed of ice, I found myself arguing with the man to at least put the animal out of its misery. He wanted to keep it alive and gasping until someone bought it, because then it would be fresh. He began yelling at me, in Arabic, and although I didn't understand the words, I knew what he was saying. He knew what I was saying, too, I'm quite sure, but didn't care. I was with a tour guide, a guy from the Israeli army, who took up my cause, and spoke to the guy, well, yelled at him, in his own language. In the end, the fish remained gasping, and I ran off upset, but we had aired the issue, not only to this particular man but to the rest of the people on the tour, people shopping all around us, perhaps other vendors. And I could at least live with my conscience for trying.

Sometimes, you don't feel safe enough to create a scene. In such cases, the best you might be able to do is get down as much information as possible, then call the local police, animal protection group, or even the tourist office. When I saw the abuse of the trail horse in the Caribbean, I complained to the manager of the hotel that had organized the ride. I told him such abuse wasn't impressive to Americans; in fact, it was disturbing, and would be a significant factor in not only whether I would return, but my recommendations to my friends about such a place.

There is a lot of world out there. And nature is a tough enough master on its own; survival of the fittest makes the world go round, after all. We have many options for our vacations, enough so that we can choose the paths of most humanity. Humanity begins, after all, with humans.

Leisure Editor Jill Schensul's e-mail address is
schensul@northjersey.com

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Aug 7, 2001