CTV News Canada: 'Wildlife selfie code' provides guideline on how to be a responsible tourist

Stock image Javier Mazzeo

Oct. 11, 2017

An animal rights group has released a "Wildlife Selfie Code" in a campaign aimed at putting a stop to the Instagram phenomenon that rips babies from their mothers, traumatizes the animals, and leads to certain death for many.

In their latest report, the U.K.-based group World Animal Protection provides a "close-up on cruelty," looking at the harmful impacts of wildlife selfies in the Amazon.

Of the 34 billion images posted by 700 million users on Instagram, the animal rights group says that tens of thousands of selfies are taken with wild animals.

Since 2014, there has been a 292 percent increase in the number of wildlife selfies posted on Instagram -- 40 percent of which are "bad" animal selfies, defined as inappropriate interactions with a wild animal, the group adds.

One of the newer animal targets is the sloth, which has endeared itself to people for its slow pace, gentle nature, and smile-like facial features.

But taking a selfie with the sloth feeds an abusive trade in which handlers search the treetops for the animals, snatch them from their natural habitat and force them to live in noisy, chaotic environments where they are repeatedly passed around from tourist to tourist.

Read more at https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/wildlife-selfie-code-provides-guideline-on-how-to-be-a-responsible-tourist-1.3627685