Animal Welfare in Tourism

Hei! Mitä kuuluu?

Well guys, here it is our first official post!! To start with it, we're going to talk about some serious issues. Sometimes, we humans forget about our ethics in order to get what we want and have fun... isn't it true? We think if we can pay something we can have it, and that is not always like that.

You might be wondering why am I saying this. Well, the reason is because we're going to talk about animal welfare in tourism services and it is a great example of what we were saying. We love animals and we want to spend time with them don't we? We want them to be part of our lifes and experiences, to be as social as we are and we want them to love us as we love them.

This can be easily possible with a dog or a cat for example, animals that has been domesticated during thousands of years, but it is not that easy with other kinds of animals. That's why we pay money (usually quite a lot) to enterprises, such as zoos, farms, riding tours with any kind of animal... which in exchange provides us with experiences or getting in contact with them, and then we think the animals are as happy as we are and they love us so much... Surprise people! They don't.

                                       Huskies and reeinders as an attraction  (Photo by : Yolanda Olivera)

Animal Tourism in Lapland

Anyway, after this introduction, at least nowadays we are a little bit concerned about the animal's rights and this is reflected in the animal based enterprises's policies. In Lapland, there are 157 of this companies.

This kind of tourism is so popular in the region because of obvious reasons. What all of we foreigns think about Lapland before coming here? Reeinders, huskys and unlimited wildlife everywhere. Then it is something that tourists really want to experience and it is so profitable for local tourism companies.

If we look at the marketing this companies do, for example the big ones as Lapland Safaris,  we can see that there is a concern about informing people somehow about how they care about the animals they have, but it is also true that they are not really specific. If we instead look at the people's opinion in websites as tripadvisor about their experiences with animal tourism products in Lapland we find good comments and almost everyone say animals seem healthy and happy. Despite we hope it is true, we are also a bit skeptical about it and we always recommend to everyone to pay attention in case you take part of one of this animals based products.

Finally, we would like to encourage people to participate more in products based on wildlife observation, which helps animal's conservation and it doesn't alterate nature, instead of services with captive animals.

Enjoy your time in Lapland and anywhere in a responsible way!

Hei hei:)