Wilderness Travel Drops Animal Rides in Giza Following Push From PETA

For Immediate Release:
May 25, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

After hearing from PETA, locally based tour operator Wilderness Travel agreed not to sell tickets for exploitative animal rides at the pyramids of Giza and will remove camel rides from its marketing materials. In thanks, PETA is sending the award-winning adventure travel company delicious vegan chocolates.

The move follows a recent video exposé from PETA Asia showing that camels used for rides at the pyramids of Giza and other top Egyptian tourist attractions are restrained, beaten, and abused in other ways. The animals’ legs are tied tightly together to prevent them from moving or escaping, and some camels are tied to the backs of vehicles and dragged through the dirt. When they’re too worn out to be used for rides, they’re sold to be killed for meat.

“A major win for animals, Wilderness Travel’s new policy encourages tourists to experience the splendor of the pyramids without climbing onto the backs of abused camels,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is celebrating Wilderness Travel for helping to save lives and inspire other tourism giants to abandon cruel practices.”

PETA Asia is calling on the governor of Giza to investigate the traders who have been caught abusing the camels and is urging the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to remove animal rides from the Giza site.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter,  Facebook, or Instagram.