The chosen charity for August 2015 is the Born Free Foundation. My original intention was to donate to Care For The Wild International, but this year they merged with the Born Free Foundation, and are now under the single banner.
Now I must go back and watch the Born Free film again.....
The merger seems a sensible idea - they have very similar goals, are both based in Horsham and have had close links in the past.
I first came across Care for the Wild International while travelling. We were looking into the local wildlife 'attractions' to visit when in Thailand (Kanchanaburi, to be exact, on the river Kwai), and came across the Tiger Temple, which is a very popular attraction with tourists.
Before deciding to visit it, we did some research on how much of a 'sanctuary' is was for the tigers, and what its animal care credentials were, and came across the Care for the Wild report into the temple:
Which effectively says "don't go there!" as the tigers are very poorly treated and even drugged in order to make them docile for the tourists.
Of course, I didn't just take the report on face value - but it made me do some more investigations and digging online and what I found backed up the findings in the report.
We didn't visit the temple.
It's work like this that directly helps people make ethical decisions while on holiday.
Of course, both charities do excellent work in other areas, but it is good to support one that we have had some direct contact with, however tenuous!
Now I must go back and watch the Born Free film again.....
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