Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

Last year the Born Free Foundation launched a campaign to encourage tour operators to actively discourage the use of wild animals as photographic props. With a series of articles in the Features section of Animal Alert!, information was provided about animal welfare and public safety implications to justify the call to phase-out these activities in resorts worldwide.  Since then, numerous tour operators have taken action.  TUI Travel and Thomas Cook, members of the Federation of Tour Operators, have written to their suppliers to discourage these activities and as a result, hotel resorts, RIU Hotels & Resorts and Bahia Principe Hotel, Mexico have halted such activities. Explore Worldwide has taken the advice one step further, and has halted all activities that involved the petting, feeding and manipulation of wild animals.