Victory! Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours Drops Dog-Sledding Excursions After PETA Plea
It’s a good day to be a compassionate traveler! After reviewing PETA’s evidence that dogs used in the dog-sledding industry spend most of their lives chained up in all weather extremes—only to be forced to haul tourists or pushed to race in deadly competitions—Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours has done the right thing and pulled all dog-sledding excursions from its website. The company also confirmed that it does not offer captive “swim with dolphins” encounters in which many tourist traps abuse dolphins who have been torn away from their families and ocean homes. As a thank-you for the company’s kind decision, PETA is cruising over a box of delicious vegan chocolates.
Scenic Cruises Is Saying ‘Bon Voyage’ to a Cruel Industry
The dog-sledding industry condemns dogs to lives chained to metal posts, ramshackle barrels, or dilapidated wooden “houses,” and just as any dog would, they suffer physically and mentally when isolated and chained up with only a few scant feet in which to sleep, eat, drink, and relieve themselves. Dogs used for tourist sled rides are also often used in races like the Iditarod, during which more than 150 dogs have died.
“Swim with dolphins” programs confine dolphins to barren tanks or makeshift lagoons with no choice but to swim in endless circles, and many die prematurely because of the stressful conditions of extreme captivity.
Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours joins a growing list of businesses that have cut ties with the dog-sledding industry after hearing from PETA, including Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Safeway, State Farm, and Wells Fargo. Dozens of companies—including Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Viking Cruises, and Virgin Voyages—have stopped offering dolphin encounters.
Cruising Toward Compassion
Dogs are loyal, sensitive individuals who deserve warmth, comfort, and kindness—not a life of chains and forced labor. And in nature, dolphins form lifelong bonds and travel vast distances alongside their fellow pod members. Animals are not ours to exploit for tourist encounters, and every company that chooses compassion helps move the world closer to leaving these abusive industries behind.
