Gate 1 Travel Bans All Elephant Rides After PETA Appeal

Company Receives Elephant-Shaped Vegan Chocolates in Thanks for Compassionate Action

For Immediate Release:
June 14, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

After corresponding with PETA, Fort Washington–based travel company Gate 1 Travel has committed to removing all tours involving captive elephants from its itineraries. In thanks, PETA is sending the company a box of delicious elephant-shaped vegan chocolates.

“Gate 1 Travel joins dozens of other travel companies in rejecting tourist traps that force highly intelligent, social elephants to give rides,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “PETA urges travelers to keep all captive-elephant camps off their itineraries and use only travel agencies that have pledged to do the same.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that elephants used for rides are often forcibly separated from their mothers, immobilized with tightly bound ropes, and gouged with nail-studded sticks or other sharp objects. Some don’t survive the grueling process, and those who do spend the rest of their lives lugging tourists around or performing tricks under the threat of being beaten with bullhooks (weapons resembling a fireplace poker with a metal hook on one end).

Gate 1 Travel joins Adventures Within Reach, Alexander+Roberts, Collette, Costco Travel, Grand Circle Corporation, Shore Excursions Group, Tauck, TripAdvisor, and many other companies in agreeing not to offer activities that involve captive elephants.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.