The Franz Weber Foundation presented this morning the campaign Canarian Camels with which it proposes a total reconversion of the sector of rides on Canarian camels (dromedaries) in the Islands, with special emphasis on Lanzarote, and a move towards sustainable tourism activities that do not involve the exploitation of these animals.
The initiative has already garnered more than 33,000 signatures on the digital activism platform Change.org from people all over the world who appeal to the main tour operating companies to put an end to this type of activities that they offer on their respective websites.
In 2021 FFW documented in a forceful report the failures in the welfare and integrity of the animals used in this tourist activity, highlighting situations that threatened their health, from musculoskeletal problems to the continuous use of muzzles that prevents the natural behaviors of camels.
Thus, the naturalists point out that "the image of Lanzarote is much more than riding on domesticated animals and that furthermore the constant incidents are creating a very negative image externally".
A litany of non-isolated incidents
In June 2023, the video recorded by a tourist where the mistreatment of a camel calf went viral and the news reached dozens of media outlets around the world, adding hundreds of thousands of views on social media.
In it one could see the blows that several workers dealt to the young animal, which was supposedly trained to carry tourists. The camel suffered repeated punishments and tugs without any employee or manager requesting to stop these behaviors.
Little more than a year later, in September 2024, a new video showed the fall of an adult camel, the flight of the tourists who were on it and the hesitant reaction of the worker in charge of the ride.
"Neither after these images does any administration seem to have taken any administrative measure. This reinforces the request for cessation of activities and puts on the table the institutional connivance with inadequate practices", they conclude.