Heading to Bali on holiday and keen to get up close with elephants, tigers, or dolphins?

You might want to stay by the pool instead - every single animal tourism venue in Bali has failed to meet the basic needs of wild animals in captivity, according to a new investigation by World Animal Protection.

The not-for-profit observed 1500 animals across 26 venues in Bali, one venue in Lombok and one venue in Gili Trawangan. World Animal Protection has now labelled the venues "wildlife abusement parks".

Ben Pearson, senior campaign manager for World Animal Protection, says he was "appalled" by the results.

"Disappointingly we found that none of the venues were [up to standard]. We really found they were all poor quality venues in which animals were suffering," Ben told Hack.

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Whatsapp Dolphin lodge, Serangan

"We found situations were dolphins had their teeth filed down and removed, we found venues were elephants were kept on short chains at night, orangutans were kept in small cages.

"The venues were all treating the animals in ways that were completely unacceptable."

World Animal Protection says they’ve successfully campaigned tourism companies like Qantas and Flight Centre to remove advertising for Bali wildlife venues from their websites and materials; they’re also urging all Australian tourists to boycott wildlife tourism in Bali.

"Unfortunately it seems the industry has grown in recent years and in some cases, we saw venues that looked to be increasing their size and the number of animals they would have.

"If you go to Bali, don’t go to these wildlife entertainment venues. Don’t go elephant riding, taking selfies with orangutans… if you do that, you’re contributing to cruelty to animals."

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An "unregulated, clever" industry

If you’ve been to Bali and visited an elephant sanctuary, you might be surprised to hear that the place you visited didn’t meet animal welfare standards.

Ben Pearson says that’s because cruelty "happens behind the scenes" at these venues.

You have an unregulated industry that is maximising profits at the expense of the animal.

"Tourists see a lush venue with animals that look like they’re fine. But what they don’t see is that when they leave, those animals are put back into small cages and enclosures, they’d had inadequate access to veterinary care, poor diets, and in some cases the training process to get them to the point where they will interact with you is really cruel and brutal.

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Whatsapp Civets in a small barren cage

"They’re quite clever like that, they claim to be involved in conservation, they claim they’ve rescued them from loggers, they claim they’re doing research, but they’re really not. They’re exploiting them for profit and they’re treating them cruelly."

How to do 'animal tourism' right

Ben Pearson says while Bali is a no-go for animal tourism at the moment, there are places around the world that are doing the right thing.

"Generally what people need to do is do their research. If you’re going to go to Africa or Asia or somewhere and you want to go and see wild animals, make sure you get information, from a website like ours or from the kind of travel companies that have agreed to do the right thing - like Intrepid and World Expeditions. They can offer you packages were you experience wild animals but without contributing to cruelty."

"If all Australians said I’m not going to wildlife entertainment venues in Bali, then we do think that would have an impact on the industry. Australians definitely have a role to play."

Read the full World Animal Protection report here.