There is much to be said for doing your research to find a facility that does not offer close interactions with elephants to visit when traveling; however, the unfortunate truth is that we can’t always hit the jackpot on ethical tourism. Sometimes we wind up at a place that seemed ethical online but isn’t actually ethical upon arrival, or maybe we don’t do enough research and stumble upon a place offering elephant rides when we really wanted to find a sanctuary.

Nothing beats finding the most ethical sanctuary possible that is honest about their practices and working to better the lives of captive elephants; but, there is a lot you can do even if this is not where you wind up. Because the number one thing as a tourist to remember is: YOU are what makes a venue either ethical or unethical, it all comes down to your choices.

How to Choose Ethical Elephant Facilities

The process of choosing an ethical venue to view elephants can be tricky. This is primarily because many facilities are aware of the buzz-words tourists look for…

And simply by using these key words on their pamphlets, advertisements, and websites, they get tons of tourists booked in to visit their elephants. There are two ways to go about fighting this… the first is to take a deep dive into their webpage, social media, or adverts before booking. Here’s what you’ll want to look for as red flags.

1. Search their location or tags on social media, do you see photos of tourists touching the elephants, bathing with the elephants, riding the elephants/standing on them in the water? Anything that shows consistent close interaction or scheduled hands-on activities with the elephants is indicative of a facility that is not putting the needs of the elephants above the desires of the tourists.

2. Do they expand on any of the buzz-words used or simply make a headline like “NO RIDING! BOOK TODAY” and move on? If the facility is truly one to support, they will explain how they do positive reinforcement training and the purpose behind it, or they will post on their blog about how riding elephants perpetuates abuse, they will explain the difference between mahouts riding elephants and tourists riding elephants, etc. Ethical facilities are committed to education, if there is no sign of education, they are likely just trying to get bookings.

3. Do they have a website?! This is a big one as many riding camps or more unethical locations are not well-organized or high tech. This is not true 100% of the time; however, it can be a red flag if they do not have a website up and running to further explain their project.

4. What kind of photos do you see of the elephants? Can you see their feet in any photos to show that they are not shackled to the ground? Are they always doing some kind of activity like being fed, bathed, etc.? Consider the message being sent with the photos they take, this is the best way to get a feel for how the elephants are being managed throughout their day. The same goes for if the site has no photos, what does this tell you about how nice or legitimate the facility may be?

5. Finally, are they responsive? If you call/email and ask questions, do they answer your question or maneuver around it to avoid giving you too much information? Any ethical facility will be open and honest with you, they will be willing to answer any of your questions. This is majorly important to remember!

Say you’ve done all of these things (or you’re reading this too late and you’ve already booked without doing these things) and you end up in a riding camp or a facility that is not treating their elephants as well as they made it seem on the internet. This is where our second option for fighting against unethical elephant tourism comes in: using your voice to speak up for the elephants.

How to Encourage Ethical Elephant Interaction

Change does not always come along quickly. Elephant owners are not always keen on changing their management style out of the fear they will lose money or simply because they don’t want to put in the work (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?). While they are often resistant to the changes encouraged by others in the elephant welfare field, they are hyper focused on the demands of tourists. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on what kinds of activities tourists are paying to engage in; however, it means that every single one of us can make a difference in the lives of captive elephants… here’s how.

If you show up to an elephant venue and you see elephants chained to the ground, showing stress behaviors, being smothered by human interaction or being ridden after the website or advertising for the location described it as a hands-off sanctuary, you’re in a powerful position to elicit change. Instead of leaving and instead of going along with their preplanned activities, tell the camp owner or guide what you want.

Now the most important thing here is to use kindness and compassion rather than rage and shame. Tell them that you feel sad seeing elephants being ridden all day and you’d like to do something different. They will likely resist this request initially, reassuring you that it’s ok and their elephants are happy, but you’re still in control as the tourist.

If you haven’t paid anything yet, tell them you’d like to pay the same amount as you would for an elephant ride or bath, but that you’d like to go on a walk next to the elephant. Or that you’d like to sit and watch the elephant while she’s able to graze for the amount of time the alternative activity would normally be. Propose an ethical option, that gives the elephant a moment in their day to rest and live as a normal elephant, and pay them for that time.

If you’ve already paid a fee, remind them that you’ve paid for *insert activity* and in the time that would normally take, you’d like to do something different. When it comes down to it, these facilities are focused on one thing: profit. As long as you are a paying customer, they will entertain your desires. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the elephant is standing in the shade eating for an hour or giving a ride in full sun for an hour as long as they’re making money off of it.

Now you may be thinking… why would I want to monetarily support an unethical facility?! And I understand that perspective as I was on that same wavelength for a long time. However, as consumers we have to shift the way we look at the issue and embrace the power we have over the way the world works. We can change an entire industry simply by asking for something new.

Showing an elephant owner that they can still make money by switching their model may be the final encouragement they needed to make a huge management shift. Or it may be the first seed planted in their mind that tourists want something different and it’s still profitable for them.

How This Can Improve Elephant Welfare

Now imagine if everyone who reads this article goes and does one or both of the techniques discussed. If more and more elephant camps were being presented with tourists that wanted something more ethical, they would be forced to change their offerings to better appeal to what the people are demanding. If more consumers fully investigate a venue before visiting, they would almost always end up at the best facility possible, further encouraging other elephant owners to make changes in order to attract tourists. This is a way to make lasting change!

Conservationists and elephant welfare advocates telling an elephant owner to change their ways isn’t enough, the message needs to come from their income source: the consumer.

What if we thought about ethical elephant interaction as a personal choice, rather than a locational choice? What if we held ourselves accountable before projecting blame onto others? What if we made ethical decisions regardless of the unethical options in front of us? What would the lives of captive elephants look like then?

I bet they would look a whole lot better.