Animal Welfare Policy
KAMPALA WALKING TOURS – Animal Welfare Policy
KAMPALA WALKING TOURS is 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.
However, some animal-related activities — such as elephant washing and rides, photo opportunities with tigers, or watching dolphins perform — lead to suffering through cruel treatment and inhumane conditions.
KAMPALA WALKING TOURS 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.
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.
KAMPALA WALKING TOURS 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.
KAMPALA WALKING TOURS also recognises that the needs of wild animals in particular can never be fully met in captivity. Where wild animals are kept in captivity, the facility must not only provide them with the best possible welfare conditions, but also contribute towards a shift away from exploitative practices and support the phasing out of keeping wild animals for commercial purposes.
Our Guidelines
At KAMPALA WALKING TOURS, we do not sell or promote venues and/or activities that offer tourists any of the following experiences:
- Close interaction with wild animals, such as touching or riding — 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, or orangutan boxing.
- Photo opportunities with wild animals — including but not limited to big cats, sloths, or primates (e.g. tiger selfies, dolphin kissing, selfies with orangutans).
- Watching animals fight or race, or being used in sport or cultural events that cause suffering or death — including but not limited to bullfighting and running, crocodile wrestling, dog fighting, rodeo, elephant polo, and horse racing.
- 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, and turtle farms.
- Engaging in trophy hunting, canned hunting, or sport fishing.
When not in conflict with the above guidelines, KAMPALA WALKING TOURS does offer and/or promote the following venues and activities where tourists can experience animals ethically:
- Genuine animal sanctuaries, rehabilitation facilities, and rescue centres that maintain the highest standards of animal care — e.g. sanctuaries certified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), or elephant venues following World Animal Protection’s Elephant-Friendly Venue Guidelines. (For further guidance, see World Animal Protection’s sanctuary checklist.)
- Responsible wildlife watching — where visitors observe animals in their natural environment from a respectful distance, without interrupting their natural behaviours. E.g. whale watching experiences certified by the Whale Cetacean Alliance (WCA).
- Zoos and aquariums accredited by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) or national zoo/aquarium accrediting bodies — provided they do not hold cetaceans in captivity, do not allow direct contact with wild animals, and do not use animals in performances. (Note: accreditation alone is not a full measure of good welfare.)