How can I help animals in other countries?

The first step in becoming a compassionate traveler is to increase your awareness of what forms of animal mistreatment you may encounter during your travels and to avoid spending your money in ways that will fuel more abuse. The second step is know what to do when you encounter abuse.

This is a list of examples and is not exhaustive. Animal abuse comes in many forms.

Animal Markets: Members of endangered species and other animals are smuggled in from other countries. They are captured, held, and transported in conditions so horrific that many die before they even reach their destination. These animals are sold for various purposes, dead or alive, such as to laboratories or to be used as exotic pets or ornaments. Click here to learn more.

Animal Product Souvenirs: There is nothing worth remembering with a souvenir made by murdering an animal. Items to avoid include products made from leather, fur, ivory, feathers, dried starfish, and tropical shells. Click here and here to learn more.

Aquariums and Marine Mammal Parks: Such facilities claim that they exist for education and conservation, but there is nothing to learn from watching depressed animals swim in endless circles in chlorinated tanks. What’s more, aquariums and marine parks actually remove animals from the wild and do nothing to advance the welfare of the species in their natural settings. Many marine animals are highly gregarious and social in the wild. They communicate through vocalizations and are incredibly intelligent creatures with a complex social structure in which there are highly developed communication patterns and behaviors. The stress of captivity, however, regularly causes animals confined to tanks to swim in silence. Please click here and also visit DolphinFreedom.com to learn how you can help dolphins.

Bullfighting: Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are taunted, tormented, and murdered during bullfights in Mexico, France, Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and elsewhere. Bullfighting is one-sided, cruel, bloody, and torturous, not competitive, mystical, or artistic, as advertisers will try to have tourists believe. Click here to find out more.

Circuses: Animals do not naturally want to dance, jump through fiery hoops, or ride a bike. Fear is instilled into circus animals by brutally forcing them to perform through the use of chains, whips, prods, and other painful tools. When the show is over, the torment continues. Circus animals are kept in the most inhumane living conditions. They do not receive proper veterinary care and usually die prematurely of stress and disease. Read more at Circuses.com.

Dancing Bears and Other Performing Animals: Endangered bears and other animals are taken from the wild and are whipped, clubbed, kicked, or beaten until they dance or perform some other trick in Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. These tormented animals are kept tied to a short chain or rope for their entire lives. They live in fear, hunger, exhaustion, and despair every day.

Fishing: Science tells us that fish have pain receptors and feel pain in much the same way as humans, dogs, and cats, yet they suffer from being impaled, thrown, crushed, or mutilated while still alive and are left to die of suffocation at the hands of fishers. Many of the fish who are “thrown back” die painfully and slowly from infections of the gashes in their necks from fishing hooks. There are many ways to enjoy the outdoors without causing harm to an animal. Please visit FishingHurts.com to learn more.

Foie Gras and Other Meat Dishes: When asked to try pâté de foie gras in France, Hungary, or elsewhere ask for vegetarian pâté instead. Ducks and geese used to produce pâté de foie gras are forced to endure hideous feeding procedures prior to their slaughter. Approximately three times a day, these unfortunate animals are fed through a long metal pipe that is shoved into their mouths, down their throats, and into their stomachs. Countless numbers of ducks and geese die because their stomachs burst. By the time the surviving animals are slaughtered, their livers have grown six to 12 times the normal size. Click here to learn more about the suffering behind foie gras. To learn more about the benefits of a vegetarian diet, visit GoVeg.com.

Greyhound Racing: According to the Greyhound Protection League, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 racing greyhounds are killed by the dog-racing industry each year in the United States alone when they are injured or are no longer fast enough to win races. Most racing dogs are confined to crates 18 to 20 hours a day. The kennels in which they live are often teeming with fleas and ticks. Racing greyhounds often suffer numerous injuries—many of them life-threatening—when they race. Please click here for more information.

Horse Racing: Thoroughbred horses have genetic problems that are exacerbated by hard track surfaces, year-round racing schedules, and corporate owners who view horses as “investments” and race them too frequently in an effort to make more money. Injured horses are often given drugs so that they can race without feeling pain. As a result, more severe injuries and chronic lameness are common. When horses are no longer winning races, they usually end up in slaughterhouses to be turned into dog food and glue. Click here to learn more.

Hunting: Hunters claim that their stalking and murdering of animals is necessary for "conservation" and "population control"; however, animals are often specially bred and raised for hunters. Zoos often sell their unwanted animals to "canned" hunt facilities to be killed and mounted on a wall. Hunters also transport animals from one area to another to bolster populations for them to hunt. Hunting is also the reason why many animals have gone extinct. There are many ways to enjoy the outdoors without harming animals. Click here to learn more about hunting.

Iditarod: In this grueling sled-dog race, dogs are forced to run in freezing temperatures out of fear of being whipped. Many dogs have collapsed and died from injuries and fatigue. Click here to learn more about this race.

Photographs With Animals: Tourists may be asked to have their pictures taken with lion cubs, bears, chimpanzees, or other animals. These sad animals are abducted from the wild, and their protective mothers are killed. These captured animals live out a bleak existence and usually die young from malnutrition or murder, as they are often killed as soon as they become too large or too strong to handle. Click here to learn more about wildlife attractions.

Rodeo: Although the animals used in the rodeo are gentle and tame creatures by nature, rodeo workers provoke them into jumping, running, and acting frenzied by using electric prods, sharp sticks, caustic ointments, and other torturous devices. The flank or "bucking" strap used to make horses and bulls buck is tightly cinched around their abdomens, where there is no rib-cage protection. Tightened near the large and small intestines and other vital organs, the belt pinches the groin and genitals. The severe pain caused by this technique causes the animal to buck. Please click here to learn more.

Running of the Bulls: Every year, tourists travel to Spain to take part in this cruel event. A small number of terrified bulls is released into a crowd of thousands to be tormented and stabbed with knives. These otherwise gentle animals are forced to defend themselves and have harmed or killed tourists in the process. In the end, the animals are violently slaughtered.

Swimming With the Dolphins and Other Animals: Though swimming with the dolphins and other sea animals is advertised as safe and humane, it is often intrusive, stressful, and dangerous for the animals. Boats and swimmers often chase, block, crowd, injure, and scare animals and upset their natural feeding, resting, traveling, and playing behavior.

Transportation Using Animals: Horses, donkeys, and other animals used to give rides are often exploited as a way to earn income from tourists. These animals are forced to carry a heavy, debilitating load and are oftentimes malnourished, ill, abused, or even walking around with open wounds. Some of these animals have been victims of serious accidents.

Veal and Other Meat Dishes: Male calves are taken from their mothers (dairy cows) and restrained in veal crates—enclosures so small that the calves cannot even turn around or lie down and stretch. These crates are where they spend their lives in solitary confinement in the dark. The calves are fed a milk substitute lacking in iron and other nutrients. This diet keeps the animals anemic and creates the pale pink or white color desired in the calves' flesh. Because of such extremely unhealthy living conditions and restricted diets, calves are susceptible to an array of diseases. Consequently, they must be given massive doses of antibiotics just to keep them alive. These drugs are passed on to the consumers in the meat. Click here for more information. Go to GoVeg.com to learn more about the benefits of a vegetarian diet.

Zoos: Animals are taken from the wild and placed in small, cramped pens with concrete floors and iron bars. They live out their lives in boredom, loneliness, and despair. Babies born in zoos are taken from their mothers and sold to other zoos or to be used in "canned" hunts. Click here to read more.

Action to Take if You Witness Animal Cruelty During Your Travels
If you witness animal abuse during your travels, calmly but firmly ask the abuser to stop or summon help from the authorities. Record details (the date, time, place, description, and a photograph if possible) of the abusive incident and immediately report it to the closest animal protection organization listed here. Please note: PETA has not worked directly with all the listed organizations and cannot guarantee their assistance.

Tell us about the witnessed incident. We would like to help.

PETA
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
E-Mail: Info@peta.org

When you return home, write a letter of complaint to the tourist board of the travel location and the proper embassy and ask them to bring your letter to the attention of the appropriate authorities. Tourist revenue is very important—if the authorities think that this income is at risk, they will be more likely to take action. If you know that the country that you visited does not have effective and comprehensive animal protection laws, urge the authorities to implement them.

Tourists may find the number of unwanted, abandoned, sick, and dying stray animals in many countries alarming, at best. The pounds in many of these regions are overcrowded—their conditions deplorable and disgusting.

Please click here to get an idea of the conditions of some overcrowded pounds and to learn more about PETA's efforts to help stray animals in Taiwan and Puerto Rico. When you return home, write to the relevant tourist board and the proper embassy urging the authorities to introduce humane shelters. Click here to learn more.

Click here for a list of animal protection agencies by region.

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