Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

Direct contact with wild animals, and especially the use of wild animals as photographic props, has become big business in popular tourist resorts across the world.  Lion and tiger cubs, reptiles, elephants, sea lions, dolphins, marine turtles, and even monkeys, gibbons and chimpanzees are just some of the species of animal that unwitting tourists are encouraged to have their photograph taken with.  Such activities are the direct result of, and are perpetuated by, tourism.  Not only are there obvious animal welfare concerns, the risk to public safety should also be a consideration for tour operators, many of whom seem to have turned a blind-eye to such practices in the past.

Contact with dangerous animals:

Despite the fact that potentially dangerous animals such as big cats may be drugged and often have their claws and teeth removed, alligators handled with their mouths wired shut or other animals chained so tightly they can barely move, the risks posed by contact with captive wild animals must never be underestimated.  No matter whether the animal has been wild-caught or captive-born, juvenile or adult, male or female, wild animals are naturally unpredictable and potentially dangerous, and pose a real risk to any tourists foolhardy enough to have direct contact with them.

There have been numerous recorded incidents of direct contact activities with humans that have resulted in injury or even death.  These include:

• A lion mauled a woman during a ‘walking with lions’ experience in Antelope Park, Gweru, Zimbabwe in 2008
• A dolphin fell on the head of tourists during a swim-with experience in Curacao in 2008
• On December 25, 2007, a tiger escaped from her pen and attacked three zoo visitors. Carlos Sousa, 17, of San Jose was killed at the scene. The tiger was shot and killed by police as she was attacking another victim, who survived. According to national press in the US there have been at least 4 deaths and 69 injuries to visitors by big cats in zoos and ‘roadside zoos’ between 2000 to 2007.
• Again at the Lion and Cheetah Park in Harare, Zimbabwe, a visitor was attacked by numerous lions in 2007.
• A young girl killed by a tiger during a photographic opportunity in China in 2007 (It is thought the animal was startled by the camera’s flash.)
• A person bitten by a capuchin monkey during a contact opportunity in US in 2006
• A man bitten by a tiger during a contact opportunity in Florida 2006
• A tourist crushed and injured by elephant in China 2006
• A boy bitten by a dolphin during a ‘petting’ session at Sea World, Florida in 2006.
• At the Lion and Cheetah Park in Harare, Zimbabwe, a lady was attacked by a lion during a close encounter session in 2006. She died later from her injuries.
• Several potentially fatal attacks by lions were recorded in 2005 at Victoria Falls (sister park to Antelope Park in Zimbabwe), which also offers the “walking with lions” experience. Luckily the visitor concerned only required stitches.
• Trained ‘dancing-bear’ attacked a member of the public in Moscow in 2004

The transmission of diseases from animals to humans:

Many diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans.  These are referred to as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses.

There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that direct contact with animals poses a significant risk of zoonotic disease transmission which may result in serious illness or even death.  The increasing trend for animal attractions to encourage more ‘hands on’ encounters with animals therefore presents a very real threat to public safety.  Despite this, many animal attractions are seemingly unaware of or fail to publicise the risks, and they do little to implement preventative measures to minimise disease transmission.

In a survey of 1,410 human diseases, 61% were found to be of potentially zoonotic origin (Karesh et al, 2005).  Approximately 75% of burgeoning or 'emergent' human diseases are also zoonotic (Brown, 2004).  People who have contact with animals are unlikely to be aware of the potential 'Trojan Horse' of infection each fish, amphibian, reptile, bird or mammal may represent and which lead to around 140 common animal-related human diseases - and an unquantified number of casualties.  Examples of where people have been infected with diseases from animals include:

1. In 1996, up to 65 people developed salmonellosis after visiting the Komodo dragon exhibit in Denver Zoo, USA.  They were apparently infected from contact with the barrier around the exhibit.

2. Contact with reptiles and amphibians is estimated to be associated with ~74,000 Salmonella infections annually in USA and Canada alone.

3. Numerous instances of E. coli and cryptosporidiosis infections as a reult of petting zoo visits in US, Canada, UK and elsewhere.  Some of these infections have resulted in severe illness and even death.

4. Contact with primates has led to humans being infected with diseases including shigellosis, tuberculosis, simian foamy virus, and herpes B virus infection.  A survey of workers at a Balinese Hindu temple, a major tourist attraction where macaques roam free, showed that contact sufficient to transmit B virus occurred commonly between humans and macaques.  Furthermore, 81.6% of the macaques at that location had antibodies to herpes B virus.

5. In the USA in 2004, 23% of the people surveyed following direct contact with marine mammals had suffered from a skin rash or reaction as a result of that contact.

Screening of animals is usually limited to the common diseases and may not include all infectious diseases. Furthermore, screening cannot guarantee public safety.

Direct animal/human contact should be avoided and where it does occur, it must be for limited periods of time, making sure welfare of the animal(s) is not jeopardized.  Any animal contact must be continuously supervised and tourists should be made aware of the risks.