As a young person, scrolling through your social media feeds you are almost certain to come across photographs and videos of your friends on their travels, and you potentially have been or are planning your own. A popular activity for people traveling around Asia, in countries like Thailand, is visiting Elephant sanctuaries. The sanctuaries offer the promise of a once in a lifetime experience. They give tourists the opportunity to feed and bathe the animals, take a ride on one through the jungle, all the while offering plenty of photo opportunities, which are certain to cause a buzz on your social media feed.
This seems like a fairly harmless activity; in fact, it seems that it is in benefit of the animals to be rescued and cared for at these sanctuaries. But it is not as harmless as it may seem, and these ‘elephant camps’ are often unregulated, and encourage the practice of illegal wildlife trafficking.
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