One of the world's top travel companies is ending its tours to many of the planet's top animal attractions. STA Travel, which provides holidays, flights and accommodation for 2.5 million students a year, has decided it will no longer organize tours to places where animals are not free. This means it will not arrange elephant rides or trips to the Tiger Temple in Thailand, as well as tours to SeaWorld in Florida and California. The company said it would only go to places it knew were good to animals. Many STA customers complained about the tours to some places, so it started to review its animal tours. A company spokeswoman said: "We take this seriously and listen carefully to feedback from animal welfare experts."
世界上最大的旅游公司之一取消了參觀地球上最具吸引力的一些動物景點的活動。STA 旅游公司,平均每年為250萬名學(xué)生提供假期,機票和住宿。已經(jīng)決定將不再組織參觀那些限制動物自由的地方。這意味著它不會安排騎乘大象或者去泰國的老虎廟,以及參觀佛羅里達和加利福尼亞的海洋世界。該公司表示,它只會去那些對動物最有利的地方。許多STA客戶抱怨有些地方的旅游,所以公司開始檢討動物之旅。公司一位發(fā)言人說,我們認真對待并仔細聆聽來自動物福利專家的反饋。
SeaWorld was disappointed with STA's decision. It wanted STA to see the high standards of animal care at both SeaWorlds. It also said activities by animal rights groups may have made STA make this decision. A SeaWorld spokesperson said: "There is no higher priority for SeaWorld than the safety of our employees and guests and the welfare of our animals." STA said it would look at more places that have animals. It said: "We are very much at the beginning of this journey. It is really important we do it over time, understand what the issues are and work with organisations that really understand those issues." The animal rights group PETA says animals such as dolphins all suffer at theme parks.
海洋世界對STA的決定感到失望。它希望STA能夠看到兩個海洋世界為動物提供的高標準福利條件。據(jù)說,動物權(quán)益團體的一些活動,也促使STA旅游公司作出這一決定。海洋世界的一位發(fā)言人說,沒有什么比員工和客人的安全,以及動物的福利更重要。STA表示,它將會組織參觀其他有動物的地方。它表示,這段旅程才剛剛開始。隨著時間的推移,我們這些做法將會顯得更有意義,理解問題所在,并與那些真正懂得那些問題的機構(gòu)合作,是很重要的。動物權(quán)益組織“善待動物協(xié)會”說,動物,如海豚在主題公園都在受罪。