This Travel Site Is Far From Savvy When It Comes to Elephant Exploitation

TripSavvy, a popular travel-planning website, gives travelers misleading and incomplete information about exploitative elephant attractions, including those that offer rides and illegitimate “sanctuaries” that allow direct interaction with elephants, like touching, feeding, and bathing, which no reputable sanctuary in the world does.

At sham elephant “sanctuaries” and other tourism facilities, elephants don’t roam freely in their natural habitat—their lives consist of exploitation, abuse, and forced, stressful interactions with the public. All elephants who are used for rides, bathing, photo ops, and other interactions first endure abusive training to “break” their spirits, followed by routine beatings and psychological torment. In their natural habitat, elephants spend their days socializing, swimming, browsing, and playing. They would never choose to interact with humans without first being forced into submission.

By failing to inform tourists of the abuse behind elephant rides and interactions, TripSavvy is helping to drive demand for an egregiously cruel industry that uses violence and domination to force elephants into subservience. Urge the company to live up to its name and stop promoting tourist attractions that exploit elephants and other animals.

Please send polite comments to the CEO of the company that owns TripSavvy:

Neil Vogel
CEO Dotdash Meredith
[email protected]

Please feel free to use our sample letter, but remember that using your own words is always more effective.