How your money is spent

Our research on World Lion Day spurred major travel companies to call on the South African government to halt trophy hunting. Over 10,900 respondents, including international tourists and South African citizens, voiced strong opposition.

84% of tourists and 70% of citizens believe wildlife-friendly tourism should be prioritized. Let's protect these majestic creatures together.

We also mobilised more than 25,000 supporters through #CancelCaptivity to demand that South Africa’s government produce their long-promised plan to shut down the commercial captive lion breeding industry. This action was launched with Blood Lions, our partner on this issue since 2019.

Between 8,000 – 12,000 lions are held in captivity; they are cruelly bred for hunting and tourist interactions like cub petting, and for wildlife-based traditional medicine. There is a risk that the government may bow to industry pressure, watering down its commitment to a voluntary phase out and this is clearly not acceptable.

Internationally, we've partnered with Spies Travel, Scandinavia's largest travel company. Together, we're ensuring animal welfare takes centre stage across their 400+ global destinations. Spies, alongside their sister companies Globetrotter, Ving Rejser and Tjaereborg, will exclusively focus on wild animal encounters in their natural habitats, shunning exploitative activities like dolphin shows and elephant rides.

Travellers will be educated against engaging in cruel encounters such as petting big cats, wildlife selfies, and supporting shows with dancing monkeys and bears.


In the UK, we’ve released our ground breaking report, ‘The Real Responsible Traveller’, where we assessed nine large travel companies and their approach to animal welfare. While some have embraced animal welfare and sentience in their policies, our report shows that five large travel companies are still failing to make the change needed for animals and are still selling captive wildlife entertainment.

We’re calling on our supporters to take a moment to tell the travel companies who are still selling captive wildlife entertainment that they will not book with them until new policies are put in place.

Our powerful 'honest rebrand' video, featuring Jolyon Rubenstein, exposed the suffering of 400 dolphins in 25 TUI-promoted venues. Shared widely on social media, it reached over 550,000 people.

With 60,000 signatures and 3,800 emails urging TUI to stop selling captive dolphin experiences, we join other travel companies in cutting ties with this cruelty. Our efforts continue in 2023, targeting wildlife entertainment profiteers.

Thanks to the unwavering support of World Animal Protection's advocates, the sale of thousands of reptiles at Doncaster Reptile Market in the UK has been prevented. Since 2020, our campaign against this cruel event, hosted at the city's racecourse, has rallied tens of thousands of individuals to demand its cessation.

In April, we called upon our supporters once again, and within a mere 24 hours, 4,809 people emailed the Mayor of Doncaster, urging the local authority to halt the market. As a result, the racecourse chose not to renew the market's contract.

For over a decade, Doncaster Reptile Market had served as a significant sales event for ball python breeders, attracting up to 5,000 attendees.

Thanks to our collaboration with the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), YouTube has removed two channels that showcased the physical and mental abuse inflicted on wild animal 'pets'. SMACC's report, launched in November, exposed videos exploiting these animals for social media engagement, featuring bush babies in baby clothes, lions and tigers on leashes, and monkeys fed with milk bottles. Some species, like orangutans and chimpanzees, were endangered.


The report documented 840 links to videos across Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. While YouTube has responded, we will persist in pressuring other platforms to prevent such content from being uploaded in the first place.

In 2022, we partnered with the Vietnam government and NGOs to rescue 27 bears from bile farms, providing them with safety in sanctuaries and rescue centres. Bear bile farming in Vietnam inflicts unimaginable suffering on these animals, confined to tiny cages for the wildlife medicine trade.

Through our collaboration with Education for Nature – Vietnam (ENV) since 2005, the number of bile-farmed bears has significantly reduced from 4,300 to 257. We also influenced Hanoi authorities to strengthen wildlife protection and combat illegal bear bile farming, with Hanoi housing 54% of Vietnam's captive bears.

Additionally, we supported the Bioresource Research Centre of Pakistan (BRC) in caring for 75 former baited and dancing bears at the Balkasar bear sanctuary. Three bears were rescued, and a total of 111 owners have transitioned to alternative livelihoods, forsaking bear ownership for good.

We are delighted that partnered website, tawap.org, featuring plant and mineral-based alternatives, has received endorsement from three wildlife-based traditional medicine associations in the USA and Canada, collectively representing thousands of practitioners.


Furthermore, our wildlife-friendly medicine pledge has garnered support from 1,237 doctors and practitioners in China, along with five Chinese pharmaceutical companies. This brings the total number of committed doctors to 2,423 and companies to 13, all dedicated to abstaining from the use of wild animal ingredients.

Every year, millions of wild animals endure cruelty, being farmed, captured, and killed for their fur, skins, and feathers in the fashion industry. To combat this, we successfully campaigned for Fashion Week organizers in Copenhagen, Melbourne, and Sydney to prohibit the use of these products derived from animal suffering.

Joint efforts with Collective Fashion and Four Paws led to Melbourne Fashion Week banning exotic animal skins and fur, while Copenhagen banned fur altogether. Although Sydney Fashion Week didn't enforce a complete ban in 2022, key sponsors AfterPay and the City of Sydney have committed to working with us to ensure the protection of wild animals in the 2023 fashion show.

We presented 'Life-threatening superbugs' report to UK government, urging a ban on antibiotics in cruel farming. This was matched by raising awareness in Brazil through subway ads and released 'multi-resistant bacteria' documentary, working on antimicrobial resistance inclusion in Canada's pandemic bill and receiving an $85k grant from Oak Foundation for research in India and Thailand.

Another noteworthy mention includes the meeting with government officials in Australia regarding antibiotic-resistant bacteria in supermarket meat and salmon, raising media coverage and community engagement.

Our investigations, unveiled prior to the UN's climate conference (COP27), exposed JBS, the largest meat processing company, for relying on cheap animal feed linked to illegal deforestation. We urge JBS to cease profiting from soy and grain products cultivated on lands that should serve as wildlife habitats. Our goal is to compel them to commit to ending deforestation in their animal feed sourcing. As a direct result, many animals remain displaced from the Brazilian wildfires caused by this devastating and intensive farming.

Through our support of Instituto Ecótono, a local environmental protection NGO, we provided care for wild animals in Matto Grosso State during 2022. Allow us to introduce one of them – Xamã, a jaguar cub.

In our efforts to raise awareness and effect change, we hosted the inaugural Food4Climate side event alongside 20 civil society organizations, urging governments to halt the approval of new factory farms.

Additionally, we embraced the first-ever Agriculture Day at a COP27, ensuring food systems were prioritized by world leaders entrusted with safeguarding our planet. We advocated for a moratorium on factory farming and collaborated with civil society partners in Africa and Asia to promote climate-safe, humane and sustainable food and protein production methods.

It is crucial to highlight the inequity that despite Africa's minimal greenhouse gas emissions and low levels of factory farming, the continent remains highly vulnerable to climate change.

Our Fairer Finance campaign exposed hidden support for factory farming and rainforest devastation. We compelled the Inter-American Development Bank to withdraw a $43m loan to Marfrig. Assessing Brazilian banks, all scored zero on animal welfare in the Fair Finance Guide Brazil.

We convinced ABP, Swedbank, and Lansforsakringar to address animal welfare in their policies. Australian pension funds CareSuper, Rest Super, and HESTA stopped investing in live animal export industries.