Despite it being two years since the event was launched, thousands of wild animals around the world are still being captured, tortured and used for entertainment purposes.

Mike Baker, CEO at World Animal Protection, explained to IBTimes UK about the importance of building a more responsible global tourism industry that does not promote the exploitation of wildlife.

World Animal Protection believe a more responsible tourism industry will encourage people to stop making a living from the enslavement of animals and help end the suffering dozens of species are subjected to in the name of entertainment.

Because of the ongoing issues surrounding the mistreatment of wild animals, the NGO now has launched the Before they Book campaign, designed to inform tourists about the issues surrounding the welfare of wild animals in certain countries. The aim of this campaign is to dissuade tourists from booking holidays that include activities and attractions where animals are tortured as part of a cruel training process to make them perform for an audience.

Last October, as part of the campaign, World Animal Protection released a video to raise awareness surrounding the abuse animals employed in the tourism industry are subjected to.

The footage featured an actress pretending to be a staff member at Authentic Elephant Rides - a web-based company offering "the very best elephant experiences ... from Thailand to Bali, Malaysia to India".

The actress in the video tells a behind-the-scenes story that reveals the tools used to torture elephants to make them follow orders.

"Elephants won't naturally let people ride on top of them, so in order to tame them and to give tourists that extra special experience, they are tortured from a very early age to completely break their spirit," she says.

"The process is called phajaan or 'the crush' while ripping them away from their mother and confining them to very small spaces."

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