FOR TOURISTS, OPERATORS, AND EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT ANIMALS
Every year,
millions of animals are
part of your travel experience.
Most people have no idea what their visit actually costs those animals.
CAT is changing that.
35%
of global tourism revenue involves animals, across hundreds of species, most without a single welfare standard protecting them.
WHAT WE DO
​What is CAT?
"Moving knowledge into practice for the just treatment of animals."
- CAT TEAM
The Centre for Animal-Based Tourism is the first organization of its kind in the world. Founded by David A. Fennell PhD, the global pioneer in tourism and animal ethics, CAT exists to transform how animals are treated across one of the world's largest industries.
Animals represent approximately 35% of all tourism revenue globally. Elephants, dolphins, lions, horses, sled dogs, and captive orcas all contribute to that number, across hundreds of species, most of them without a single welfare standard protecting them.
​
CAT works on three fronts simultaneously...
i.
Operators
We work with animal-based tourism operators worldwide to assess their current practices and build a genuine path toward higher standards.
ii.
Tourists
We work with tourists to raise their animal welfare literacy so that the choices they make with their travel dollars reflect what they actually value.
iii.
Research
And we generate and translate cutting-edge research into practical tools that operators, policymakers, and communities can use right now.
WHY IT MATTERS
​The scale of the problem is bigger than most people realize.
Tourism is the world's biggest industry, and it uses an estimated 100 million animals as workers and entertainers.
​
Baby dolphins are taken out of the water for selfies for so long that they end up dying. Young elephants are kept in wooden enclosures for weeks, tortured until fear makes them compliant enough to carry tourists. Greyhounds live in cages for 22 hours a day. Donkeys are forced to give rides in 120 degree heat. Captive orcas live in concrete tanks a fraction of the size of their natural range, chewing on tank surfaces until their teeth fracture, spending up to 70% of their day completely motionless.
​
These are not fringe or one off incidents, they reflect an industry-wide gap between what tourists want and what animals actually experience.
Most tourists and most operators are unaware of these impacts because of a critical lack of animal welfare literacy and best practice knowledge, not because they do not care, but because the knowledge has yet to reach them.
That gap is exactly what CAT was built to mend.
TWO PATHS
​Where do you fit in?
II. FOR OPERATORS
You care about the animals in your operation. CAT will meet you where you are and work with you from there.
CAT assesses your current practices and places you on the Justice Pathway at the level that reflects where you are. From there, the work begins.
Through a set of 10 evidence-based programs, CAT works alongside you to raise your standards, earn your certification, and keep moving toward the highest level of animal care in the industry.
FOR OPERATORS
THE JUSTICE PATHWAY
The world's first certification system for ethical animal tourism.
How the Journeys to Justice pathway works is that CAT assesses where your operation stands today and places you on one of four levels, from Transitioning Practice through to the Pinnacle of Practice, Deep Justice for Animals.
​
Through 10 evidence-based programs covering everything from animal welfare literacy and behavioural enrichment to nonviolent communication and suffering audits, CAT works alongside your operation to raise your standards at every level.
The badges operators earn are not just participation trophies.
They are verified proof of where an operation stands and where it is headed.
For tourists, those badges are a guide. A venue displaying a CAT certification has been assessed by the world's leading research centre in animal-based tourism.
LEVEL 01
TRANSITIONING
Certified Transitioned Practice
Acknowledges where you are today. Sets the baseline and commits the operation to measurable improvement on a defined timeline.
Entry tier
i.
LEVEL 02
TRENDING
Certified Trending Practice
Meaningful welfare improvements verified against the Five Domains. Staff trained in animal welfare literacy and nonviolent care.
Verified progress
ii.
LEVEL 03
BEST PRACTICE
Certified
Transforming Practice
Among the highest standards globally. Independent suffering audits, behavioural enrichment, and transparent reporting embedded in operations.
Industry-leading
iii.
LEVEL 04
DEEP JUSTICE FOR ANIMALS
Certified Deep Justice
Animals treated to the highest standards through principles of regenerative tourism. Operations restructured around the animal's interests. - the highest standard CAT awards.
Aspirational tier
iv.
Download the framework (PDF)
DAVID FENNELL, PhD
FOUNDER, CENTRE FOR ANIMAL BASED TOURISM
THE RESEARCH BEHIND THE MISSION.
Good science changes things. ​
​​David A. Fennell created the animal ethics in tourism sub-field in 2000 and has spent the 25 years since building the body of knowledge the industry has been missing. CAT is where that research finally becomes practice.
i.
Founding Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Ecotourism
ii.
Recognized in the top 0.05% of scholars worldwide across all disciplines
iii.
Author of the most cited works in ecotourism, tourism ethics, and animal welfare in tourism
iv.
The only global centre uniting animal welfare science, conservation, education, and ecotourism
PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH
BROCK UNIVERSITY
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
The Story Behind The Logo
As part of a NAFTA grant, David had the opportunity to travel to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 1996 with colleagues from all three NAFTA countries (six university members in total). The group was invited to participate in an ecotour one day, and while on the way to a protected area, the driver of the vehicle made a quick stop at a farm, "where we would find a pleasant surprise".
When they arrived, they were led to an open-air garage, and to their dismay, found a female jaguar on a length of chain no more than five feet long. Her two cubs were kept in the back in a cage. The ecotour operator made the following comment: "Given how elusive the jaguar is in the forest, we thought we would show you one up close so you can see how beautiful these animals are.” After getting over the initial shock, the group made it clear that they would have much rather seen a picture of a jaguar in a book or magazine than under these conditions. Such came with a strong suggestion not to bring ecotourists, or any other tourists for that matter, to the farm, and that setting the animals free was the responsible course of action.
It was the genesis—the watershed moment—in the development of a new subfield of tourism studies, which would manifest a few years later through David's pioneering work on the topic. Tourism and animal ethics is now a dedicated program of research for a growing number of graduate students and tourism scholars who are all making a difference.
In thinking back to that jaguar, we wonder how people in tourism, let alone ecotourism, can be blind to the welfare of animals in the name of profit and pleasure. Tourism can be a great development strategy if planned, developed, and managed properly. We honour the involuntary sacrifice of that jaguar through the Centre for Animal-based Tourism. Moreover, we are proud to use her likeness to break the chains of the past in forging a more responsible and sustainable animal-based tourism industry in the future.
THE WORK CONTINUES
Good science changes things.
So does your support.​
CAT is a not-for-profit. The research, the certification work, the education programs, the global animal welfare literacy surveys, all of it depends on the support of people who believe animals used in tourism deserve better.
If that includes you, this is where belief becomes tangible action.