Breaking! British Airways & Born Free Partner On New Animal Welfare Policy & Launch Of Wild Animal Protection Initiative

British Airways Holidays and international wildlife organization Born Free partnered to develop a new animal welfare strategy that launched yesterday.

The strategy, which British Airways Holidays has been working with Born Free on for more than one year, calls for the travel company to commit to never promoting the captivity of wild animals and discouraging its hotel partners from doing so.

As of yesterday, all attractions where captive wild animals are central to the attraction have been removed from its website.

While it will continue to offer customers the opportunity to book rooms in certain hotels that keep wild animals onsite, customers will not be able to book tickets for any animal attractions through British Airways Holidays. These hotels will be clearly labelled as keeping wild animals onsite in captivity to allow customers to make an informed choice when booking their holiday.

“Our customers tell us they have concerns about wild animals being kept in captivity, and increasingly think of animal performances in particular as outdated,” Claire Bentley, Managing Director of British Airways Holidays said in a statement. “We are delighted to have worked with Born Free to develop our new strategy which allows our customers to make more informed choices, and we are contacting all of our hotel and attraction partners about our new approach.”

British Airways Holidays is also supporting the development of a new and dedicated facility for Born Free to deliver lifetime care for rescued big cats at Panthera Africa, a wild animal sanctuary in Stanford, South Africa.

Born Free is also launching its new global online alert system, Raise the Red Flag, which enables people to alert the charity of any potential cases that may require its help. Raise the Red Flag not only lets people report their concerns, but it highlights animal welfare issues, shares information and provides advice and guidance on how travelers can take action to help captive wild animals.

“We are delighted that as part of our new and exciting partnership, British Airways Holidays has committed to supporting both the creation of a new sanctuary space for rescued wild animals and to support our new initiative Raise the Red Flag,” stated Dr. Chris Draper, Head of Animal Welfare and Captivity at Born Free. “It is the first time any major travel company has truly supported an active initiative to help wild animals and we applaud British Airways Holidays for taking this bold stance.”

You can help all animals by choosing compassion on your plate. #GoVeg