Thomas Cook stops selling tickets to wildlife parks with killer whales



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Travel Organization Thomas Cook stops selling trips to wildlife parks with killer whales. Keeping orcs in captivity would be dangerous for the animals and lead to aggressive behavior.

The company made the decision after criticism from consumers and animal welfare organizations. "We have had contacts with specialists in the field of animal welfare," writes Peter Fankhauser, the best man in the business. "And listened to their scientific evidence."

The company has also started a survey of customers. "More than 90% of them think that their travel business should take animal rights seriously, and I can not afford to ignore this opinion," says Fankhauser, 1969. In practice, the decision means that Thomas Cook does not offer more trips to two parks. SeaWorld Florida and Loro Parque in Tenerife

Critical Documentary

Concerns about the well-being of orcas have increased since 2013. It's the year when Netflix published the documentary Blackfish which suggests that animals in captivity become dangerously aggressive, sometimes even with deadly consequences. After the release of the movie, there was more and more disapproval regarding the keeping of orcas in the theme parks.

A year and a half ago, Thomas Cook began to control the 49 animal parks with which they worked together. 29 of these parks did not meet the animal welfare standards of ABTA, a major British travel organization. For these parks, Cook had already stopped selling

Seaworld and Loro Parque had passed this test at the time, but Thomas Cook now decided that they would no longer cooperate with them.

For many years

Criticism does not yet lead to major innovations in the parks themselves. Seaworld told the BBC that they were not stopping keeping the killer whales. "We are no longer breeding orcas," said a spokesman, "but the animals we have will be with us and our visitors for many years."

Thomas Cook does not stop selling tickets, but only next summer. "We can work together with both companies to prepare for our exit," says Fankhauser. [ad_2]
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