Social Media Fuels Inhumane Encounters With Exotic Animals

By Steve Bynum
A man holds up a banner that reads in Spanish: “No to circus with animals” during a protest by animal rights activists outside the Spanish Agriculture, Food and Environment Ministry in Madrid, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. An elephant died and four more were being treated for injuries after a circus truck accident on a major Spanish highway that provoked an outcry among animal rights defenders.
A man holds up a banner that reads in Spanish: "No to circus with animals" during a protest by animal rights activists outside the Spanish Agriculture, Food and Environment Ministry in Madrid, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. An elephant died and four more were being treated for injuries after a circus truck accident on a major Spanish highway that provoked an outcry among animal rights defenders. Francisco Seco / AP Photo
A man holds up a banner that reads in Spanish: “No to circus with animals” during a protest by animal rights activists outside the Spanish Agriculture, Food and Environment Ministry in Madrid, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. An elephant died and four more were being treated for injuries after a circus truck accident on a major Spanish highway that provoked an outcry among animal rights defenders.
A man holds up a banner that reads in Spanish: "No to circus with animals" during a protest by animal rights activists outside the Spanish Agriculture, Food and Environment Ministry in Madrid, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. An elephant died and four more were being treated for injuries after a circus truck accident on a major Spanish highway that provoked an outcry among animal rights defenders. Francisco Seco / AP Photo

Social Media Fuels Inhumane Encounters With Exotic Animals

By Steve Bynum
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Instagram is full of them: photos of tourists riding elephants, posing with tigers or cuddling koalas. But what is happening behind the scenes? That is among the questions writer Natasha Daly sets out to answer in her new article for National Geographic “Suffering Unseen: The Dark Truth Behind Wildlife Tourism.” To prepare the story, Daly spent three months in the field on four continents, along with photographer Kirsten Luce. In her article, she tells the stories of the roughly 3,800 captive elephants in Thailand, as well as circus bears in Russia, dolphins used for tourist encounters in Brazil and so many other captive animals. Daly joins Worldview to discuss National Geographic’s “How to” guide on how vacationers can humanely observe exotic animals, especially as the summer tourism season approaches.