Four Paws Warns: Cruel, Not Cute – Wild Animal Selfies on Holiday

Ten tips to #TravelKind and protect animals this festive season

• Skip wild animal shows, feeding, selfies and any form of direct interaction
• Avoid buying souvenirs made from animals
• Observe wild animals from a respectable distance and visit only true sanctuaries

Cape Town, 01 December 2025 – A selfie with a lion cub, riding an elephant, or swimming with dolphins might seem like the ultimate holiday memory, but global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS warns that these activities are rooted in cruelty. To make wild animals perform tricks or interact with tourists, they are often kept in inappropriate conditions and subjected to physical and psychological abuse. FOUR PAWS urges holiday goers to travel responsibly and offers ten tips to protect animals this holiday season.

“What looks like fun for us often means a lifetime of suffering for the animal,” says Fiona Miles, Director of FOUR PAWS South Africa. “We strongly encourage travellers to avoid any activity that involves touching, feeding, riding or taking selfies with wild animals. True sanctuaries never allow direct interaction, animals should only be observed from a safe distance in their natural habitat and in true sanctuaries,” explains Miles.

The fate of animals exploited in tourist attractions is grim. “Lion cubs are torn from their mothers to be used for petting and photo opportunities. When they grow too big, many end up as targets in trophy hunting. Elephants endure brutal training to make them submissive for rides. Even horses and donkeys used for tourist transport often suffer for hours in extreme heat, with no shade, rest, food or enough water,” she adds.

To protect animals and observe them in a safe way, FOUR PAWS recommends ten tips to #TravelKind:

1. Enjoy animals in the wild: Observe wildlife in their natural habitat from a safe distance. Avoid tour operators or providers who offer trophy hunting.
2. Just look, don’t touch: Holding or petting wild animals is never kind, despite your best intentions.
3. No feeding policy: Feeding wild animals harms their ability to find food naturally and teaches them to get dangerously close to humans. This can endanger both animals and people.
4. Avoid animal selfies: Don’t support businesses charging for photos with animals. Your perfect photo comes with life-long suffering for them. Big cats are often heavily sedated to pose with tourists and spend their life suffering in captivity.
5. Only visit true sanctuaries: Do your research before your visit. At true sanctuaries, animal welfare comes first and no direct interaction between animals and visitors is allowed. If the place offers selfies, petting, feeding, animal shows or is involved in breeding and trade, all alarm bells should be ringing.
6. Say no to animal rides: Avoid activities like elephant, camel, donkey, and horse rides. They often endure harsh training and poor living conditions with little enrichment, water and rest.
7. Skip animal shows: Performances involving wild animals, such as circuses or marine parks, are animal cruelty and cause immense suffering due to inappropriate keeping conditions and forced unnatural behaviour.
8. Avoid souvenirs made from animals: Don’t buy trinkets or other products made of animal parts (like exotic leather, tortoise shell, ivory, corals, fur, etc.). Purchasing such products encourages poaching animals from the wild and spurs the extinction of endangered species.
9. Steer clear of exotic dishes: Avoid restaurants and street vendors offering dog or cat meat, or endangered species, such as shark fins. These animals endure cruel treatment to end up on your plate.
10. Stay at a safe distance: Be aware that many strays and wild animals are fearful of humans and can attack when approached, so keep your distance for your own safety, as the transmission of rabies and other diseases is a possible risk.

This holiday season let’s make choices that protect animals instead of harming them. Cruelty is never cute.

For more information, please visit our website at www.four-paws.org.za

Author: Deidre Daniels..