World Animal Protection, PETA and WTG unite against animal cruelty at GetYourGuide HQ
Press release
World Animal Protection, PETA and WTG join forces outside the Berlin headquarters of leading online travel marketplace, GetYourGuide on Friday, May 17 to demand the company stops promoting and selling cruel tourist activities involving animals.
World Animal Protection, PETA and Welttierschutzgesellschaft (WTG) will join forces outside the Berlin headquarters of leading online travel marketplace, GetYourGuide on Friday, May 17 to demand the company stops promoting and selling cruel tourist activities involving animals. The leading animal welfare charities will voice their opposition to animal cruelty marketed and sold by the German travel company as exotic experiences, including elephant bathing, selfies with tiger cubs and swimming with dolphins.
GetYourGuide is among the last of the big global travel brands putting profit ahead of cruelty - earning millions of dollars a year by selling to unsuspecting customers outdated and unethical, cruel practices which sustain the exploitation and suffering of animals.
A billboard near GetYourGuide´s headquarters in the German capital has throughout the week displayed the message “Making Memories Misery. GetYourGuide: Stop selling animal cruelty!” which refers to one of the company´s well-known advertising slogans. A mobile LED billboard vehicle screened a powerful animation to company employees and as they arrived for the company’s flagship Summer Summit’s all-staff gathering. The truck will drove across Berlin to amplify the call to the company to stop profiting from cruel animal experiences. And a Cruelty Award was handed to GetYourGuide to underscore its continued cruel business practices.
The day of action was designed to serve as powerful reminder to all who work for the company that consumer demand for ethical tourism is on the rise.
Morvah George, World Animal Protection’s Wildlife Campaigns Lead, said:
GetYourGuide is the travel industry’s laggard. Other global travel companies have taken important steps to protect wild animals in tourist experiences. GetYourGuide has the opportunity to join its peers and demonstrate its commitment to ethical tourism.
They could use their annual Summer Summit to show true leadership and compassion to their staff, by ending its shameful involvement in animal cruelty for profit. By continuing to offer these experiences, the company is complicit in the exploitation of animals for entertainment purposes.
Keeping wildlife in captivity for entertainment is demeaning, with suffering starting the moment the animals are captured from the wild or bred in captivity. Exposed to harsh, often brutal training which causes life-long physical and psychological damage, wild animals like elephants, tigers and dolphins experience stress and discomfort at entertainment venues promoted by GetYourGuide.
Contrary to claims, such captive wildlife entertainment offers no genuine benefit to conservation or education as shown in various research.
GetYourGuide is classified by World Animal Protection as among the lowest ranked global travel brands in terms of their animal welfare commitments.
Since the early 2023 release of World Animal Protection’s Real Responsible Traveller report, GetYourGuide has been repeatedly asked to remove cruel animal entertainment from its services. Yet despite requests to meet with animal welfare representatives to discuss the issues and rationale, the company has so far declined, and instead has blocked World Animal Protection’s emails and removed reasonable and diplomatic comments from social media posts.
PETA Germany spokesperson Dr. Tanja Breining said:
PETA Germany has repeatedly called on GetYourGuide to stop promoting and selling tourist attractions in which animals suffer cruelty for profit. As the company has so far failed to respond, we are now appealing directly to those responsible at their headquarters, asking them to immediately remove the abuse of animals from their business.
We hope today’s action will help bring about a change in thinking both inside and outside the company, and to remind tourists to avoid booking or promoting these offerings.
Wiebke Plasse, WTG´s Head of Communications and Fundraising said:
We all need to adopt the ‘No likes for animal suffering’ approach on social media, and not react to images and videos that show wildlife entertainment activities like wild animal selfies. Every single like and similar comment validates the cruelty and increases demand that leads to more animal suffering.
World Animal Protection, PETA Germany, and WTG are urging their supporters to join us in calling out GetYourGuide via their social media and implore them to do better for animals:
Notes to Editors:
For more information and to arrange interviews please contact:
Global Media Manager, Peter Simpson
Tel; +44 (0) 7803 051 848