In the last few years, I’ve made the mistake of assuming people could see certain conservation issues through the same lens that I do. Recently, I’ve realized that this could not be further from the truth! There are so many wildlife related topics that seem obvious to me, but is anything but obvious to others. With recent feedback I’ve gotten just from social media, I wanted to share a couple of the fallacies that I hear most often.

Fallacy #1: “People Who Raise Wild Animals Can Interact With Them Safely once they’re full grown”

A few weeks ago I posted a video highlighting the photo shown here to talk about wildlife exploitation and abuse. The facilities that allow tiger petting are also highly involved in the illegal wildlife trade, will often kill their tigers young to sell their parts illegally, and keep the animals in poor conditions. On top of this, it is not aligned with natural tiger behavior to sit and pose for photos or allow humans to touch them; because of this, many of these facilities sedate their tigers regularly and utilize drugs to keep them calm. Some are kept on leashes or chains to further optimize safety and the enclosures they live in do not meet their needs. Since the point of the business is to make money, funds are not placed into making clean and spacious enclosures for the tigers.

When I posted this, I got hundreds of comments that this is not depicting abuse because the person in the photo could have raised the animal, and therefore can interact with the fully grown predator safely. This is not only assuming that this person raised the tiger (which is more than likely untrue), but also suggests that there are circumstances where this kind of interaction is acceptable.

The truth is, regardless of if the tiger was raised by humans, no accredited zoo or ethical sanctuary would ever have unprotected contact with a fully grown animal. Not even factoring in the living situation of the animal, these are still wild animals that have instincts. There is absolutely no way to ensure safety without having a barrier between the human and the tiger. Not to mention close interaction with humans causes stress in wild animals like tigers. There is a reason we don’t walk around petting wild tigers in our everyday lives.

This is a fallacy that continues encouraging tiger interaction therefore damaging their quality of life and further contributing to the tiger population dropping.

Fallacy #2: “Elephants Crave Human Interaction, so They Enjoy Giving Humans Rides. therefore Not all Riding camps are Unethical”

I fully recognize that this is partially used as a way to avoid guilt around engaging in exploitative activities; however, it doesn’t justify spreading this fallacy. Assuming that animals enjoy the attention of humans is a big leap considering in a perfect world these animals would be in the wild having absolutely no interaction with humans. While there are some elephants who are more comfortable around humans due to a life in captivity, to use this as a reason to bring more elephants into captivity and exploit them is off base.

Additionally, while riding elephants has been a long standing tradition in many countries, this is a tradition worth breaking! There is absolutely no way to train wild animals to provide rides to humans in an ethical way. This is a stressful process that does not prioritize the psychological or physical health of the elephant.

Even if we take riding elephants off the table, humans induce major stress and trauma on elephants. Too much human interaction is the number one reason many elephants used in tourism experience complex PTSD (more on that here) and live in a constant state of anxiety. When it comes down to it… reducing interaction with wild animals is always the most ethical way to go!

Breaking away from these fallacies

While many tourists want to get photos with wildlife, it’s important to remember that the activities we put money and time into will continue thriving. Those who continue giving money to tiger petting facilities rather than ethical rescues, will continue driving the demand for exploitative activities. This also gets perpetuated through social media with the continuous photos being posted from venues like these which encourages others to do the same activities.

Help spread awareness about these common conservation fallacies and be sure to support ethical venues! In the next few weeks I’ll be sharing more tips and recommendations for finding ethical sanctuaries now that many of us are considering future travel plans, so stay tuned for those and be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to make sure you don’t miss any upcoming tips.