Animal Welfare Policy
Update: 09:00 UTC | 01 June 2025
INTRODUCTION
From our inception, Vivu Journeys has been committed to responsible tourism and protecting animals who are impacted by the travel industry. We have developed this animal welfare policy as animal encounters have become increasingly popular as part of people’s holiday experiences. This increasing popularity has led to more demand for wildlife in captivity for the purpose of entertaining tourists. Furthermore, some animal related activities, such as elephant rides, photo opportunities with tigers or watching dolphins perform, lead to suffering through cruel treatment and inhumane conditions. Vivu Journeys believes that all animals should be respected for their intrinsic value and that the best way to experience animals whilst on holiday is by seeing them in the wild.
At Vivu Journeys, excursions and attractions in which captive wildlife is held are not offered, except for properly regulated activities in compliance with local, national, and international law and that contribute to the conservation of biodiversity or social impact purposes. In the case of living specimens of protected wildlife species, these are only kept by those authorized and suitably equipped to house and care for them humanely.
I. Our Commitments
- We are committed to not supporting activities with wild animals in captivity for entertainment or touristic purposes, such as zoos, circuses, dolphin shows, and elephant camps.
- Ensuring the highest level of animal welfare for all animals.
When under human care, both domesticated and non-domesticated (wild) animals, must have ‘a good life’ by enjoying good physical and mental health. The conditions they are provided must favour positive experiences over negative ones within an environment that encourages making choices and enables them to express the widest possible range of natural behaviours.
Vivu Journeys only works with suppliers if the animals under their care are provided with the highest possible welfare in line with the Five Domains of Animal Welfare:
- Nutrition – factors that involve the animal’s access to sufficient, balanced, varied and clean food and water.
- Environment – factors that enable comfort through temperature, substrate, space, air, odour, noise and predictability.
- Health – factors that enable good health through absence of disease, injury, impairment and good fitness level.
- Behaviour – factors that provide varied, novel and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing, retreating and others.
- Mental State – by presenting positive situations in the previous four functional domains, the mental state of the animal should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort or vitality, while reducing negative states such as fear, frustration, hunger, pain or boredom.
II. Our Guidelines
At Vivu Journeys, activities involving animals in captivity must be approved by top management and our sustainability team. These activities must adhere to our commitments and are more likely to be approved if they contribute to conservation efforts to protect wildlife and the natural environment or positively impact society and socially disadvantaged individuals.
We do not sell or promote venues and/or activities that offer tourists the following experiences.
- Close interaction with wild animals, such as, touching, riding, or feeding, including but not limited to elephant riding and bathing, swimming with dolphins or walking with lions
- Watching wild animal performances, including but not limited to dolphin shows, circuses, orangutan boxing
- Photo opportunities with wild animals, including, but not limited to big cats, sloths, or primates, tiger selfies, dolphin kissing, or selfies with orangutans
- Watching animals fight or race, or being used in other sport or cultural events that cause animals to suffer or die, including but not limited to bullfighting and running, crocodile wrestling, dog fighting, rodeo, elephant polo and horse racing
- Zoo or aquarium visits
- Visiting facilities where captive wild animals are bred and kept for commercial products, including but not limited to crocodile farms, civet coffee farms, bear bile farms, turtle farms
- Buying souvenirs made from wild animal parts, such as bags made out of crocodile or snake-skin, jewellery made out coral, ivory, tortoise shells
- Engaging in trophy, canned hunting or sport fishing
When not in conflict with any of the above guidelines Vivu Journeys does offer and/or promotes the following venues and activities where tourists can experience animals.
- Responsible, wildlife watching where a visitor can observe animals in their natural environment from a suitable distance without interrupting their natural behaviours or disturbing their routines.
- Tours to the APOPO Visitor Center in Cambodia, home to HeroRATs that can safely detect landmines and tuberculosis. One such rat, the famous Magawa, was awarded the PDSA (George Cross) gold medal for sniffing out over 100 landmines and explosives.
- Riding of domestic animals such as horse back riding or cart rides (approval based on World Animal Protection’s Specific Guidance Manual for Working Animals).
- Tours to farms with domesticated animals that support the livelihood of small farmers, such as water buffalo dairy farms in Laos.
Procedures for Approval - Excursions with Animals in Captivity
Any activity that involved animals in captivity of any type (including but not limited to farms, sanctuaries, etc.), needs to go through the following approval process:
- Review our Animal Welfare Policy to ensure proposed excursion complies with criteria listed
- Submit written proposal to Managing Director (MD) and Group Sustainability Manager. This proposal should as a minimum the following: how the excursion complies with our policy criteria, any ways the excursion does not apply with our policy criteria, any other sustainability impacts the excursion supports (e.g. conservation, social impact, etc.), and the estimated annual number of pax who will embark on the excursion.
- MD and Group Sustainability Manager will give initial approval or denial of the proposed excursion.
- In person review of the excursion using relevant checklists that address specific criteria developed by third-party organizations (such as ABTA or World Animal Protection manuals for working animals and elephant camps) for the Five Domains of Animal Welfare.
- Checklist submitted to MD and Group Sustainability Manager for proposed approval of one year. MD and Group Sustainability Manager will consult World Animal Protection publications or directly if possible or any other third-party animal welfare organization, weigh the social or conservation impact and the risks involved. If given final approval, the procedures for implementation must be followed.
Procedures for Implementation - Excursions with Animals in Captivity
- Code of Conduct developed specifically for the excursion covering at minimum the following: reasons for approval of the animal excursion, best practices for travellers partaking, and request for travellers to report via email any concern for the welfare of the animals to [email protected].
- Code of Conduct sent to Managing Director (MD) and Group Sustainability Manager for review and approval.
- Final Code of Conduct shared with operations team, guides performing the excursion, customer product manager, and end customer partaking in the tour.
- Annual review of the excursion to be performed by the product team and submitted to the MD and Group Sustainability Manager for ongoing approval. Review should include, at a minimum, any significant changes to the excursion that impact the compliance to our policy criteria, an additional in person review of the excursion with relevant checklists, and the number of actual pax for the previous year.
- Any reported concerns by travellers will be investigated and may result in stop sell of the excursion.
