As the festive season gets started in Bali, over one million tourists are packing their bags and getting ready to jet off to paradise.
With many of Bali’s top attractions featuring animals as entertainment, an animal welfare organization is calling on tourists to make wise decisions when it comes to where they visit and if they interact with animals.
Four Paws Australia has urged tourists heading to Bali in the coming weeks, months, and years to prioritize animal welfare when planning their activities and day trips.
While many organizations in Bali claim to offer sanctuary to animals or the highest welfare conditions, investigations have found quite the opposite to be true.
The majority of animals used in Bali’s tourism sector are at risk of exploitation.
Activities like taking selfies with elephants, tigers, orangutans, and other primates have all been identified as dangerous to both humans and animals by leading wildlife specialists over the last decade and as harmful to the health and well-being of the animals themselves.
Speaking to reporters, the National Director of Four Paws Australia, Rebecca Linigen, called on tourists to make responsible decisions during their time in Bali. She said, “We encourage everyone to appreciate the beauty of the island.”
Adding “but we also want to share guidance on how to make small but impactful changes to protect a multitude of animals while holidaying in Bali.”
As an animal welfare organization, Four Paws Australia has created a whole set of guidelines to help tourists avoid supporting facilities with poor welfare standards for their animals.
The NGO calls for tourists not to take part in any activities that involve feeding, touching, or holding animals. Tourists are also asked to avoid elephant shows, bathing elephants, and riding elephants.
Linigen told reporters, “Ethical animal tourism venues will be transparent about their practices, won’t encourage direct contact with animals, and won’t allow any breeding, trading, or hunting of animals.”
Four Paws Australia has been in operation for 35 years and have been visiting Bali to check out the situation on the ground for a long time.
Their team has seen the treatment of the island’s animals from all angles. The NGO writes, “Across Bali, a number of places offering elephant rides call themselves ‘elephant sanctuaries’. – This often leads to the confusion of tourists believing their money is going to a good place.”
They state, “Officially regulated sanctuaries will never encourage excessive interaction between humans and animals like riding.”
The advice from Four Paws Australia echoes the findings of World Animal Protection’s 2023 investigation into the living conditions and welfare standards of animal tourism facilities across Bali and Lombok.
The intensive undercover investigation revealed that, by their criteria, there are no ethical animal tourism facilities in the two provinces.
The International Animal Welfare NGO launched a campaign called Holidays That Harm, designed to help inform tourists about how and why animal tourism is exploitative and how tourists can ensure they do not support unscrupulous venues.
World Animal Protections Head of Campaigns, Suzanne Milthorpe, called on animal lovers to avoid all tourist attractions in Bali that are home to animals on account of the investigation findings.
She told reporters, ‘What we found was no wildlife entertainment venue in Bali met good welfare standards for animals in captivity, and most didn’t even meet the basic needs.”
The investigation revealed that ten of the venues assessed during the undercover investigation included Mason Elephant Lodge, Bali Zoo, Bali Safari Marine Park, and Bali Exotic Marine Park all of which were categorized as wildlife entertainment venues and fell short of the top welfare standards World Animal Protection would be happy to support as animal-friendly.
Milthorpe reminded tourists that some facilities in Bali appear to be operating high welfare facilities but are in fact “masquerading” as sanctuaries or rescue facilities.
The full report is available on the World Animal Protection website, and the concluding statements are pretty damning.
The organization wrote in June 2023, “The conditions for wildlife in tourism venues in Bali and Lombok continue to be deeply concerning, with the welfare of many animals severely compromised and no substantial improvement evident since 2017.”
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Walt
Monday 25th of December 2023
Bali is a giant open air zoo full of monkies on noizy motorbikes. They steal cheat and do what they do everyday. If you give one of them a banana they get very angry if you don't give them more bananas, and the will never give you a banana. Tourists come to see the monkies but are getting bitten and robbed to often these days and have decide its not safe in the big zoo anymore. Only some pieces of shit from the eastern blok like it now, because they understand how to not feed the monkies without getting hurt.
Exp
Tuesday 19th of December 2023
Quote "The NGO calls for tourists not to take part in any activities that involve feeding, touching, or holding animals. Tourists are also asked to avoid elephant shows, bathing elephants, and riding elephants."
Many (naive) tourists may think that many of these activities are legal and licenced -- hence unable to see the issue. So why not ban activities harmful to animals and not wait for demand to slow down?
ron clark
Tuesday 19th of December 2023
Iam a frequent visitor to Bali and on one occasion to visit mason elephant park and under stood that they were rescued from sumatra and and were able to stay at the park.While there I did see people on there backs but only two at a time and that was the only way they could ern there keep as they do not get any support from the goverment .the time I was there I found that the elephants were well look after and were verry happy and well fed and NO CHAINS.
don
Tuesday 19th of December 2023
Organisations fail when giving such wrong advice about Bali wildlife parks. The places care for the animals so well and have successfully bred endangered animals and released to wild. They can afford to help animals by sharing safe experiences for expenses. What is mostly missed by these selfish animal rights groups is the great contribution for our children to see and learn. The elephant show at Bali Safari addresses conflicts between elephants and humans that are in their own environment. My 13 yo son now teaches many others in his classroom and school exhibits and explains the problems. Children become advocates for change in social media also. This is only because they were provided the great animal experiences at these Bali parks. Animal Rights groups have this terribly wrong here! We have spent more time at these parks then they ever have. Professional’s educated in same universities look after animals here. They are very well cared for and not mistreated but benefiting their future existence through visitors sharing.