Spent my day with 8 strong, beautiful ladies who have found peace in Phuket after suffering 40+ years of abuse 🐘💚
Visiting truly ethical sanctuaries is a reminder of how important it is to spread awareness of animal cruelty in the tourism industry. Any experience that offers riding, bathing, cuddling, touching or tricks means that the animals are still suffering behind the scenes to make sure they “behave” for their spectators.
If you want to enjoy animal experiences because you care for the animal, I urge you to do extensive research 💚 sanctuaries like
@hiddenforestelephantreserve are working tirelessly every day to not only protect the animals in their care, but create an environment that is centred around them. Today we moved with the elephants and how they wished to spend their day, observing from a distance 🐘
Sanctuaries like this rely on visitors and donations to continue their work. Today we learned that each rescue elephant costs between $20-30,000 with no funding or government assistance - all funds come from respectable tourism. That’s just the start before even considering the cost of land, food, vets, staff and more 🥺
You can sponsor an elephant or donate to
@hiddenforestelephantreserve via their website, and if you take anything from this, reconsider how your actions can actually be caring for animals that have already suffered enough at the hands of humans, and be mindful with your next animal encounter 💚 (and yes, I’m talking about sea world, horse riding, zoos & sanctuaries that claim to be ethical or conservation but offer abusive practises!!)
