How Tourists Can Help

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How Tourists Can Help

Write a Letter

Write a letter or email to your travel providers (airline, cruise line, tour operator, hotel/resort, ground transportation, etc.) and the tourist destinations you visited, asking that they support the humane treatment of animals at destinations they serve and implement an animal welfare policy. Click below to download sample letters/emails in Microsoft Word.

Download the Template for Microsoft Word

Support a Rescue Group

Support a local animal rescue group at an international travel destination. Volunteer for a day. These organizations make it easy for you to help.

Find Animal Rescue Groups

Talk About It

Make a video about any vacation experiences you had that were affected by animals and share with HumaneAdvisor.com on FB.

Go to Our Facebook Page

Tell Others About It

Submit reviews of travel providers on websites like Virtual Tourist, TripAdvisor, etc. about animal welfare issues at travel destinations you visit.

Go To Trip Advisor Go to Virtual Tourist

Get Social

Share Your Story

Share your vacation animal welfare story with HumaneAdvisor.com for a blog post.

Email Your Story Now!

Get Inspired

Suggest your own creative idea on how tourists can help animals with HumaneAdvisor.com. Email Diana@humaneadvisor.com

Suggest an Idea!

Travel Professionals for Strays

Dear Sirs and Madams,

We are writing to you with much respect as fellow professionals in the travel industry, to bring to your attention a concern of our clients about your destination. Our feeling is that these clients might choose travel destinations other than your own should this concern not be properly addressed.

For many tourists, including our clients, encountering stray cats or dogs, that are obviously starving, sick, or suffering while on vacation, leaves a lasting negative impression of their holiday experience. We have seen that once tourists have such an experience, many are not only less likely to return to that destination but will also share their negative experience with friends, family members, colleagues, and on social media and travel review sites. Some tourists even refuse to travel to certain destinations because they don’t want to see the suffering of stray cats and dogs. Many of these same tourists have heard of the inhumane and brutal mass killings that the destination country employs to control stray populations and are horrified. Such tactics are seen as cruel and unnecessary.

It has come to our attention that tourism to your country is affected by this issue and as a consequence of these increasing concerns, I would like to urge you to take action on this important matter.

As indicated, the mass killing of these animals is not the solution since that tactic does not address the root of the problem, namely the uncontrolled reproduction of cats and dogs. While mass killings have an immediate effect they actually contribute to greater population growth because the remaining animals have better access to the limited resources and thereby reproduce faster. So not only are they actually ineffective towards a long term solution, tourists view them as inhumane, giving them one more reason not to choose that particular destination.

The only long-term and cost- effective solution to managing stray cat and dog populations is sterilization, and this is why we would like to ask you to start ongoing sterilization programs in your community as soon as possible. Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who care for stray cats and dogs at tourist destinations have already started important campaigns to address this problem and would be happy to collaborate with you and help you start effective and cost-effective programs that would be supported by tourists to your country.

For more information about how your community can begin a campaign, the NGOs available to partner with, and the impact of stray cats and dogs on tourism, please contact Humane Advisor, tourismhelpingstrays@humaneadvisor.com, or Responsible Tourism FAADA, turismo@faada.org. These organizations work with travel destinations and NGOs to humanely manage stray populations.

We would be excited to inform our clients of your decision to address this issue in a humane and responsible way, and I’m sure that both your community and the tourism industry will benefit immeasurably.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

With kindest regards,

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