Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours has removed dog-sledding excursions from its website and no longer offers captive swim with dolphin encounters.
According to a press release issued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the cruise and tour company, which offers ocean and river cruises along with land tours, has confirmed that the activities have been eliminated.
PETA said it had communicated with Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours regarding the animal rights organization’s concerns surrounding dog-sledding.
“Dogs in the dog-sledding industry are no different from the dogs we share our homes with, yet they’re used and abused like disposable equipment,” PETA President Tracy Reiman, said in a statement.
“PETA urges other travel companies to follow Scenic Cruise’s compassionate lead and reminds travelers to leave animal-exploiting activities off their itineraries,” Reiman added.
Dogs used in the sledding industry typically spend the bulk of their lives chained to metal posts, ramshackle barrels, or dilapidated wooden houses, according to PETA.
“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,” the organization said in a press release.
Meanwhile, programs that allow tourists to swim with dolphins involve dolphins spending their lives confined to barren tanks or makeshift lagoons. Many dolphins living in these environments die prematurely because of the stressful conditions of extreme captivity, said PETA.
A report issued several years ago by World Animal Protection, an international non-profit organization, revealed that unsuspecting tourists are fueling a multibillion-dollar industry involving cruelty to dolphins.
“Millions of animal lovers every year are led to believe that dolphin
shows and experiences sold by some of the world’s largest travel
companies are cruelty-free, educational, and beneficial for conservation
efforts,” said the report, titled Behind the Smile. “This could not be further from the
truth. Rather, the industry is reaping billions of dollars in profits
off the cruel captivity of dolphins kept for entertainment.”
From being captured in the wild, to having to undergo captive breeding,
to being forced to live in inhumane barren tanks, dolphins suffer at
every stage of their captivity, explained the Behind the Smile report, adding that
dolphin venues often make “false or exaggerated claims regarding their
benefits to conservation, education, and research.”
In their natural environment, dolphins swim across a territory of more than 40 miles of ocean freely. However,
when held in tiny, barren, concrete tanks 200,000 times smaller than
their natural space – in which they are exposed to infection, chemicals
and often drugged to cope with captivity – the dolphins are only able to
swim a few feet at a time.
Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours joins a growing list of businesses that have cut ties with the dog-sledding industry, including Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Safeway, State Farm, and Wells Fargo.
In addition, many major companies have stopped offering dolphin encounters including Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Viking Cruises, and Virgin Voyages.
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