{"id":205623,"date":"2025-04-25T22:33:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T22:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/adventure\/how-we-changed-the-elephant-riding-industry\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T22:33:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T22:33:17","slug":"how-we-changed-the-elephant-riding-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=205623","title":{"rendered":"How We Changed The Elephant Riding Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/be-kind-thailand-chiang-mai-5317-e1533880322845-425x239.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>In 2014,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/why-not-ride-elephants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we officially put a stop to elephant riding<\/a> on all Intrepid trips. At the time, it was a bit of an industry-shaking move.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tourist elephant rides were widespread, and there was an unspoken feeling among the travel community \u2013 tour operators included\u00a0\u2013 that breaking-in elephants for travel purposes was somehow okay; that these elephants were \u2018domesticated\u2019, so it was all good.\u00a0Looking back, it\u2019s amazing the world turned a blind eye for as long as it did.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010\/2011, we partnered with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldanimalprotection.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Animal Protection<\/a>, a global not-for-profit that protects the world\u2019s animals, to commission a study into elephant conditions on-the-ground in countries like Thailand, where elephant riding was widespread. This was an exhaustive investigation into hundreds of wildlife projects and businesses, conducted by impartial animal welfare experts. The results were beyond conclusive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why We Stopped Riding Elephants - Be Kind. Be Intrepid\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BbZvouw6GYo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the 118 elephant venues assessed, we found over 1300 animals suffering in terrible conditions: taken young from the wild, separated from their familial groups, broken again and again using sharp hooks and other tools, chained up at night and denied good nutrition. All for the sake of \u00a010-minute tourist ride, or a circus-like show where animals were made to stand on their hind legs, or juggle, or paint pictures using their trunks. We knew something needed to be done, and since that day we\u2019ve worked hard to raise awareness about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/purpose\/animal-welfare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-wpil=\"url\">plight of elephants in captivity<\/a>, and elephant rides in particular.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/purpose\/animal-welfare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-wpil=\"url\"><strong>READ MORE ABOUT INTREPID\u2019S ANIMAL WELFARE POLICY NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also an ethical alternative that benefits both elephants and travellers.\u00a0In Africa, there are over 400 protected land areas where elephants can roam in social groups and be observed by travellers on safari. There are even conservation projects like the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust whose goal it is to protect elephant populations in the wild. Our not-for-profit, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theintrepidfoundation.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Intrepid Foundation<\/a>, also partners with conservation projects around the wor.d<\/p>\n<p>The tricky bit is when projects represent themselves as conservation-focussed, when really they don\u2019t meet basic animal welfare standards. All travellers can do is research, research, research. Look up reviews online. Read the project\u2019s animal welfare policy (they should have one). And if all else fails, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ask us<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Find out more about how you can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/stories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a kind, responsible wildlife traveller here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Feature image by Patrick O\u2019Neill.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2014,\u00a0we officially put a stop to elephant riding on all Intrepid trips. At the time, it was a bit of an industry-shaking move. Tourist elephant rides were widespread, and there was an unspoken feeling among the travel community \u2013 tour operators included\u00a0\u2013 that breaking-in elephants for travel purposes was somehow okay; that these elephants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11760],"tags":[14525,5509,11315,4656],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-205623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","tag-changed","tag-elephant","tag-industry","tag-riding"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How We Changed The Elephant Riding Industry - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=205623\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How We Changed The Elephant Riding Industry - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2014,\u00a0we officially put a stop to elephant riding on all Intrepid trips. 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